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23  WIST  MAIN  STMIT 

WIUTIR.N.Y.  145M 

(716)  •72-4503 


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CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiquas 


©1984 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notas/Notat  tachniquaa  at  bibliographiquaa 


Tha  Instituta  has  attamptad  to  obtain  tha  bast 
original  copy  availabia  for  filming.  Faaturas  of  this 
copy  which  may  ba  bibliographicaily  uniqua, 
which  may  altar  any  of  tha  imagas  in  tha 
raproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  changa 
tha  usual  mathod  of  filming,  ara  chackad  baSow. 


D 


a 


D 


D 
D 


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Colourad  covars/ 
Couvartura  da  coulaur 


I     I    Covars  damagad/ 


Couvartura  andommagte 


Covars  rastorad  and/or  laminatad/ 
Couvartura  rastaur6a  at/ou  pallicuite 


I      I   Covar  titia  missing/ 


Le  titro  da  couvartura  manqua 


I      I   Coloured  maps/ 


Cartas  gAographiquas  an  coulaur 

Colourad  ink  (i.a.  othar  than  blua  or  black)/ 
Encra  da  coulaur  (i.a.  autra  qua  blaua  ou  noira) 


I      I    Colourad  platas  and/or  illustrations/ 


Planchas  at/ou  illustrations  an  coulaur 

Bound  with  othar  material/ 
RaliA  avac  d'autres  documents 

Tight  bikiding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin/ 

La  re  liura  serr6e  peut  causer  de  i'ombre  ou  de  la 
distortion  le  long  de  la  marge  intArieure 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoration  may 
appear  within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these 
have  been  omitted  from  filming/ 
II  se  peut  que  certaines  pages  blanches  ajoutAas 
lors  d'une  restauration  apparaissent  dans  le  texte. 
mais.  lorsqua  cela  Atait  possible,  ces  pages  n'ont 
pas  4tA  filmtes. 

Additional  comments:/ 
Commentaires  supplAmantairas: 


ThI 
to 


L'Institut  a  microfilm*  la  meilleur  exemplaire 
qu'il  lui  a  AtA  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details 
de  cet  exemplaire  qui  sont  peut-Atre  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibliographiqua,  qui  peuvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduite.  ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une 
modification  dans  la  m6thoda  normale  de  filmage 
sont  indiquAs  ci-dessous. 


I      I   Coloured  pages/ 


D 


Pages  de  couleur 

Pages  damaged/ 
Pages  endommag6es 

Pages  restored  and/oi 

Pages  restauries  at/ou  peiliculAes 

Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxei 
Pages  dAcoiorias.  tachettes  ou  piquies 

Pages  detached/ 
Pages  dAtachtes 

Showthrough/ 
Transparence 

Quality  of  prir 

QualitA  intgale  de  » impression 

Includes  supplementary  matarii 
Comprend  du  mettriei  supplAmentaira 

Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Mition  disponibie 


I      I  Pages  damaged/ 

I      I  Pages  restored  and/or  laminated/ 

r^  Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 

I      I  Pages  detached/ 

Fyj  Showthrough/ 

I      I  Quality  of  print  var'es/ 

I      I  Includes  supplementary  material/ 

I — I  Only  edition  available/ 


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firs 
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Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc..  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  List  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totalement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata.  une  pelure. 
etc..  ont  M  filmtes  A  nouveau  de  fapon  d 
obtanir  la  maiileure  image  possible. 


This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  film*  au  taux  de  rMuction  indiqui  ci-dessous. 


10X 

14X 

18X 

22X 

2ex 

30X 

n/ 

12X 


16X 


20X 


24X 


28X 


32X 


The  copy  filmed  here  hes  been  reproduced  thonks 
to  the  generosity  of: 

Nstionei  Library  of  Canada 


L'exemplaire  film*  fut  reproduit  grice  A  la 
ginArotitA  de: 

BibiiothAque  nationale  du  Canada 


The  image*  appearing  here  are  the  best  quality 
possible  considering  the  condition  and  legibility 
of  the  originel  copy  and  in  keeping  with  the 
filming  contract  specifications. 


Las  images  sui\  antes  ont  6t6  reproduites  avec  le 
plus  grand  soin,  compte  tenu  de  la  condition  et 
de  la  nettetA  de  I'exempiaira  film6,  et  en 
conformity  avec  les  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmage. 


Original  copies  in  printed  papor  covers  are  filmed 
beginning  with  the  front  cover  and  ending  on 
the  last  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, or  the  back  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  originel  copies  are  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, end  ending  on  the  last  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


Les  exemplaires  originaux  dont  la  couverture  en 
papier  est  imprimis  sont  filmfo  en  commenpant 
par  le  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
dernlAre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'imprsssion  ou  d'iliustration,  soit  par  le  second 
plat,  salon  le  cas.  Tous  les  autres  exemplaires 
originaux  sont  filmte  en  commenpant  par  la 
premlAre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'iliustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  -^  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  V  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 


Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparaftra  sur  la 
dernlAre  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  le  symbols  •>►  signifie  "A  SUIVRE",  le 
symbols  V  signifie  "FIN". 


Meps,  pistes,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  end  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diegrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


Les  cartes,  plancnes,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  Atre 
filmis  A  des  taux  de  reduction  diffirents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  dtre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  clichA,  il  est  f  ilm6  d  partir 
de  I'angle  supArieur  gauche,  de  gauche  A  droite, 
et  de  heut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  nicessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrent  le  mithode. 


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GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE 
OF  EXISTENCE 


•r^^o 


GUESSES  AT 


THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


AND 


OTHER  ESSAYS  ON  KINDRED  SUBJECTS 


BY 


GOLDWIN   SMITH,  D.C.L. 

AUTHOB  OF   "CANADA  AND  THE  CANADIAN  QCESTION  "   "  Tlllt 

United  States,"  "Esbavb  on  Qukstionb  ' 
OF  thb  Day,"  etc.,  irr. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

LONDON :  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Ltd. 
1898 

■A.II  rights  reserved 


4563U 


Sm/t^,  ^ 


COPTBIOHT,   1896, 

Bt  macmillan  and  go. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped  December,  1896.     Reprinted  March, 
May,  1897;  July,  1898. 


X  8.  Cuihlng  &  Co.  —  Berwick  b  Smith 
Norwood  Mm.  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 


Op  the  papers  in  this  volume  three  have 
appeared  before ;  two  in  the  North  American 
Review^  one  in  the  Forum^  to  the  editors  of 
which,  respectively,  the  writer's  thanks  are 
due  for  their  courtesy  in  permitting  the  repub- 
lication. The  writer  has  also  once  or  twice 
drawn  on  previous  papers  of  his  own. 

For  such  of  the  essays  as  have  appeared  in 
print  some  inquiries  have  been  made.  Those 
who  desire  to  read  them  again  are  probably 
of  the  same  mind  as  the  writer,  and  with  him 
believe  that  there  is  no  longer  any  use  in 
clinging  to  the  untenable  or  in  shutting  our 
eyes  to  that  which  cannot  be  honestly  denied. 
The  educated  world,  and  to  a  great  extent  the 
uneducated  world  also,  has  got  beyond  the 
point  at  which  frank  dealing  with  a  tradi- 
tional creed  can  be  regarded  as  a  wanton  dis- 
turbance of  faith. 


PREFACE 


Liberal  theologians  have  at  least  half  re- 
signed the  belief  in  miracles,  rationalizing 
wherever  they  can  and  minimizing  where  that 
process  fails.  Liberal  theologians,  and  even 
theologians  by  no  means  ranked  as  liberal,  if 
they  are  learned  and  opsn-minded,  have  given 
up  the  authenticity  and  authority  of  Genesis. 
With  these  they  must  apparently  give  up  the 
Fall,  the  Redemption,  and  the  Incarnation. 
After  this,  little  is  left  of  the  ecclesiastical 
creeds  for  criticism  to  destroy. 

If  there  is  anything  which,  amidst  all  these 
doubts  and  perplexities,  our  nature  tells  us,  it 
is  that  our  salvation  must  lie  in  our  uncom- 
promising allegiance  to  the  truth.  It  is  hoped 
that  nothing  in  these  pages  will  be  found  fairly 
open  to  the  charge  of  irreverence  or  of  want  of 
tenderness  in  dealing  with  the  creed  which  is 
still  that  of  men  who  are  the  salt  of  the  earth. 

If  much  is,  for  the  present,  lost,  let  us  re- 
member that  there  is  also  much  from  which  by 
the  abandonment  of  dogmatic  tradition  we  are 
relieved.  If,  on  the  one  hand,  the  old  argu- 
ments for  theism  and  immortality  have  failed 
us,  and  the  face  of  the  Father  in  heaven  is  for 


PREFACE 


Vii 


the  moment  veiled,  on  the  otter  hand  we  are 
set  free  from  the  belief  that  all  who  go  not  in 
by  the  strait  gate,  that  is,  the  greater  part  of 
mankind,  are  lost  for  ever ;  from  belief  in  the 
God  of  Dante,  with  his  everlasting  torture- 
house;  from  belief  in  the  God  of  Predestina- 
tion, who  arbitrarily  rejects  half  his  creatures 
and  dooms  them  to  eternal  fire.  That  which 
in  a  good  sermon  has  most  practical  effect  will 
probably  survive  its  ecclesiastical  or  theological 
form. 

Tht  spirit  in  which  these  pages  are  penned  is 
not  that  of  Agnosticism,  if  Agnosticism  imports 
despair  of  spiritual  truth,  but  that  of  free  and 
hopeful  inquiry,  the  way  for  which  it  is  neces- 
sary to  clear  by  removing  the  wreck  of  that 
upon  which  we  can  found  our  faith  no  more. 

To  resign  untenable  arguments  for  a  belief 
is  not  to  resign  the  belief,  while  a  belief  bound 
up  with  untenable  arguments  will  share  their 
fate. 

Where  the  conclusions  are,  or  seem  to  be, 
negative,  no  one  will  rejoice  more  than  the 
writer  to  see  the  more  welcome  view  reasserted 
and  fresh  evidence  of  its  truth  supplied. 


viii 


PREFACE 


If,  u  our  hearts  tell  us,  there  is  a  Supreme 
Being,  he  cares  for  us ;  he  knows  our  perplex- 
ities; he  has  his  plan.  If  we  seek  truth,  he 
will  enable  us  in  due  time  to  find  it.  Whether 
we  find  it  cannot  matter  to  him;  it  may  con- 
ceivably matter  to  him  whether  we  seek  it. 

The  reader  will  look  for  no  attempt  to  dis- 
cuss recondite  questions,  documentary  or  his- 
torical. Nothing  is  attempted  here  beyond  the 
presentation  of  a  plain  case  for  a  practical  pur- 
pose to  the  ordinary  reader. 

It  may  be  thought  presumptuous  in  a  la3anan 
to  write  on  these  subjects,  though  his  interest 
in  them  is  as  great  as  that  of  the  clergy. 
Would  that  the  clergy  could  write  with  per- 
fect freedom. 


ToBONTO,  January,  1897. 


reme 
plex- 
1,  he 
sther 
con- 


dis- 

his- 

ithe 

pur- 

rman 
erest 

per- 


CONTENTS 


GUE88E8   AT   THE    RIDDLE    OF    EXISTENCE       . 


IS   THERE  ANOTHER   LIFE? 


VAOJS 
I 


THE   CHURCH   AND   THE   OLD    TESTAMENT      .         .      47 


97 


THE   MIRACULOUS   ELEMENT   IN   CHRISTIANITY  .    135 


MORALITY   AND   THEISM 


189 


ONE   WORD   MORE    .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .   246 


Im 


GUESSES  AT   THE   RIDDLE  OF 
EXISTENCE 


I:'   * 


GUESSES  AT  THE   RIDDLE  OF 
EXISTENCE 


Never  before  has  the  intellect  of  man  been 
brought  so  directly  face  to  face  with  the  mys- 
tery of  existence  as  it  is  now.  Some  veil  of 
religious  tradition  has  always  been  interposed. 
At  the  beginning  of  this  century  most  minds 
still  rested  in  the  Mosaic  cosmogony  and  the 
Noachic  deluge.  Greek  speculation  was  free, 
and  itL  freedom  mnkes  it  an  object  of  extreme 
interest  to  us  at  the  present  time^  But  it  was 
not  intensely  serious ;  it  was  rather  the  intel- 
lectual amusement  of  a  summer  day  in  Academe 
beneath  the  whispering  plane. 

No  one  who  reads  and  thinks  freely  can 
doubt  that  the  cosmogonical  and  historical 
foundations  of  traditional  belief  have  been 
sapped  by  science  and  criticism.  When  the 
crust  shall  fall  in  appears  to  be  a  question  of 
time,  and  the  moment  can  hardly  fail  to  be  one 

8 


m 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


lii 


of  peril ;  not  least  in  the  United  States,  where 
education  is  general  and  opinion  spreads  rapidly 
over  a  level  field,  with  no  barriers  to  arrest  its 
sweep. 

Ominous  symptoms  already  appear.  Almost 
all  the  churches  are  troubled  with  heterodoxy 
and  are  trying  clergymen  for  heresy.  Quite  as 
significant  seems  the  growing  tendency  of  the 
pulpit  to  concern  itself  less  with  religious 
dogma  and  more  with  the  estate  of  man  in 
his  present  world.  It  is  needless  to  say  what 
voices  of  unbelief  outside  the  churches  are  heard 
and  how  high  are  the  intellectual  quarters 
from  which  they  come.  Christian  ethics  still 
in  part  retain  their  hold.  So  does  the  Church 
as  a  social  centre  and  a  reputed  safeguard  of 
social  order.  But  faith  in  the  dogmatic  creed 
and  the  history  is  waxing  faint.  Ritualism 
itself  seems  to  betray  the  need' of  a  new  stimu- 
lus and  to  be  in  some  measure  an  aesthetic  sub- 
stitute for  spiritual  religion. 

Dogmatic  religion  may  be  said  to  have  re- 
ceived a  fatal  wound  three  centuries  ago,  when 
the  Ptolemaic  system  was  succeeded  b^-^  the 
Copernican,  and  the  real  relation  of  the  earth 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


to  the  universe  was  disclosed.  Dogmatic  reli- 
gion is  geocentric.  It  assumes  that  our  earth  is 
the  centre  of  the  universe,  the  primary  object 
of  divine  care,  and  the  grand  theatre  of  divine 
administration.  The  tendency  was  carried  to 
the  height  of  travesty  when  an  insanely  ultra- 
montane party  at  Rome  meditated,  as,  if  we 
may  believe  Dr.  Pusey,  it  did,  the  declaration 
of  a  hypostatic  union  of  the  Pope  and  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

The  effect  of  the  blow  dealt  by  Copernicus 
was  long  suspended,  but  it  is  fully  felt  now 
that  the  kingdom  of  science  is  come,  and  the 
bearings  of  scientific  discovery  are  generally 
known.  When  daylight  gives  place  to  star- 
light we  are  transported  from  the  earth  to  the 
universe,  and  to  the  thoughts  which  the  con- 
templation of  the  universe  begets.  "  What  is 
man,  that  Thou  art  mindful  of  him  ?  "  is  the 
question  that  then  arises  in  our  minds.  Is  it 
possible  that  so  much  importance  as  the  creeds 
implj'^  can  attach  to  this  tiny  planet  and  to  the 
little  drama  of  humanity  ?  We  might  be  half 
inclined  to  think  that  man  has  taken  himself 
too  seriously  and  that  in  the  humorous  part  of 


6       GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 

our  nature,  overlooked  by  philosophy,  is  to  be 
found  the  key  to  his  mystery.  The  feeling  is 
enhanced  when  we  consider  that  we  have  no 
reason  for  believing  that  the  evidence  of  our 
senses  is  exhaustive,  however  much  Science, 
with  her  telescopes,  microscopes,  and  spectro- 
scopes, may  extend  their  range.  We  cannot 
tell  that  we  are  not  like  the  sightless  denizens  of 
the  Mammoth  Cave,  unconsciously  living  in  the 
midst  of  wonders  and  glories  beyond  our  ken. 

Nor  has  the  natural  theology  of  the  old 
school  suffered  from  free  criticism  much  less 
than  revelation.  Optimism  of  the  orthodox 
kind  seems  no  longer  possible.  Christianity 
itself,  indeed,  is  not  optimistic.  It  represents 
the  earth  as  cursed  for  man's  sake,  ascribing 
the  curse  to  primeval  sin,  and  the  prevalence 
of  evil  in  the  moral  world  as  not  only  great  but 
permanent,  since  those  wiio  enter  the  gate  of 
eternal  death  are  many,  while  those  who  enter 
the  gate  of  eternal  life  are  few.  Natural  theol- 
ogy of  the  optimistic  school  and  popular  reli- 
gion have  thus  been  at  variance  with  each 
other.  The  old  argument  from  design  is  now 
met   with  the   answer  that  we   have   nothing 


J 


rENCE 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


,  is  to  be 
feeling  is 
have  no 
oe  of  our 
I   Science, 
1  spectro- 
7e  cannot 
enizens  of 
ing  in  the 
our  ken. 
E    the  old 
much  less 
orthodox 
tiristianity 
represents 
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great  but 
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who  enter 
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svith  each 
in  is  now 
nothing 


I 


with  which  to  compare  this  world,  and  there- 
fore cannot  tell  whether  it  was  possible  for 
it  to  be  other  than  it  is.  Mingled  with  the 
signs  of  order,  science  discloses  apparent  signs 
of  disorder,  miscarriage,  failure,  wreck,  and 
waste.  Our  satellite,  so  far  as  we  can  see, 
is  either  a  miscarriage  or  a  wreck.  Natural 
selection  by  a  struggle  for  existence,  protracted 
through  countless  ages,  with  the  painful  ex- 
tinction of  the  weaker  members  of  the  race, 
and  even  of  whole  races,  is  hardly  the  course 
which  benevolence,  such  as  we  conceive  it, 
combined  with  omnipotence,  would  be  ex- 
pected to  take.  If  in  the  case  of  men  suffer- 
ing is  discipline,  though  this  can  hardly  be 
said  when  infants  die  or  myriads  are  indis- 
criminately swept  off  by  plague,  in  the  case 
of  animals,  which  are  incapable  of  discipline 
and  have  no  future  life,  it  can  be  nothing 
but  suffering;  and  it  often  amounts  to  tor- 
ture. The  evil  passions  of  men,  with  all  the 
miseries  and  horrors  which  they  have  pro- 
duced, are  a  part  of  human  nature,  which 
itself  is  a  part  of  creation.  Through  the 
better  parts  of  human  nature  and  what  there 


Ir 


8       OUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


is  of  order,  beneficence,  majesty,  tenderness, 
and  beauty  in  the  universe,  a  spirit  is  felt 
appealing  to  ours,  and  a  promise  seems  to  be 
conveyed.  But  if  omnipotence  and  benevo- 
lence are  to  meet,  it  must  apparently  be  at  a 
point  at  present  beyond  our  ken.  These  are 
the  perplexities  which  obtrude  themselves  on 
a  scientific  age. 

What  is  man?  Whence  comes  he ?  Whither 
goes  he?  In  the  hands  of  what  power  is 
he?  What  are  the  character  and  designs  of 
that  power?  These  are  questions  which,  now 
directly  presented  to  us,  are  of  such  over- 
whelming magnitude  that  we  almost  wonder 
at  the  zeal  and  heat  which  other  questions, 
such  as  party  politics,  continue  to  excite. 
The  interest  felt  in  them,  however,  is  daily 
deepening,  and  an  attentive  audience  is  assured 
to  any  one  who  comes  forward  with  a  solution, 
however  crude,  of  the  mystery  of  existence. 
Attentive  audiences  have  gathered  round  Mr. 
Kidd,  Mr.  Drummond,  and  Mr.  Balfour,  each 
of  whom  has  a  theory  to  propound.  Mr. 
Kidd's  work  has  had  special  vogue,  and  the 
compliments   which  its  author    pays    to   Pro- 


GUESSES  AT  THE  EIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


fessor  Weismann  have   been   reciprocated  by 
that  luminary  of  science. 

Mr.  Drummond  undertakes  to  reconcile,  and 
more  than  reconcile,  our  natural  theology  and 
our  moral  instincts  to  the  law  of  evolution. 
His  title.  The  Ascent  of  Man^  is  not  new ; 
probably  it  has  been  used  by  more  than  one 
writer  before  ;  nor  is  he  the  first  to  point 
out  that  the  humble  origin  of  the  human 
species,  instead  of  dejecting,  ought  to  encour- 
age us,  since  the  being  who  has  risen  from 
an  ape  to  Socrates  and  Newton  may  hope  to 
rise  still  higher  in  the  future,  if  not  by 
further  physical  development,  which  physi- 
ology seems  to  bar  by  pronouncing  the  brain 
unsusceptible  of  further  organic  improvement, 
yet  by  intellectual  and  moral  effort.  Mr. 
Drummond  treats  his  subject  with  great  brill- 
iancy of  style  and  adorns  it  with  very  in- 
teresting illustrations.  Not  less  firmly  than 
Voltaire's  optimist  persuaded  himself  that 
this  was  the  best  of  all  possible  worlds,  he 
has  persuaded  himself  that  evolution  was  tlie 
only  right  method  of  creation.  He  ulti- 
mately identifies  it  with  love.     The   cruelties 


10     OUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


incidental  to  it  he  palliates  with  a  compla- 
cency which  sometimes  provokes  a  smile.  All 
of  them  seem  to  him  comparatively  of  little 
account,  inasmuch  as  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence was  to  lead  up  to  the  struggle  for  the 
existence  of  others,  in  other  words,  to  the 
production  of  maternity  and  paternity,  with 
the  altruism,  as  he  terms  it,  or,  as  we  have 
hitherto  termed  it,  the  affection,  attendant 
on  those  relations.  To  reconcile  us  to  the 
sufferings  of  the  vanquished  in  the  struggle 
he  dilates  on  "the  keenness  of  its  energies, 
the  splendour  of  its  stimulus,  its  bracing  effect 
on  character,  its  wholesome  lessons  through- 
out the  whole  range  of  character."  "With- 
out the  vigorous  weeding  of  the  imperfect," 
he  says,  "the  progress  of  the  world  would 
not  have  been  possible. '^  Pleasant  reading 
this  for  "  the  imperfect "  I 

"  If  fit  and  unfit  indiscriminately  had  been  allowed  to 
live  and  reproduce  their  kind,  every  improvement  which 
any  individual  might  acquire  would  be  degraded  to  the 
common  level  in  the  course  of  a  few  generations.  Prog- 
ress can  only  start  by  one  or  two  individuals  shooting 
ahead  of  their  species;  and  their  life-gain  can  only  be 
conserved  by  their  being  shut  off  from  their  species  — 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE     11 

or  by  their  species  being  shut  off  from  them.  Unless 
shut  off  from  their  species  their  a'  n[uisition  will  either 
be  neutralized  in  the  course  of  time  by  the  swamping 
effect  of  inter-breeding  with  the  common  herd,  or  so 
diluted  as  to  involve  no  real  advance.  The  only  chance 
for  evolution,  then,  is  either  to  carry  off  these  improved 
editions  intc  'physiological  isolation,'  or  to  remove  the 
unimproved  editions  by  wholesale  death.  The  first  of 
these  two  alternatives  is  only  c'^asionally  possible ;  the 
second  always.  Hence  the  death  of  the  unevolved,  or 
of  the  unadapted  in  reference  to  some  new  and  higher 
relation  with  environment,  is  essential  to  the  perpetua- 
tion of  a  useful  variation." 


This  reasoning,  with  much  more  to  the 
same  effect,  is  plainly  a  limitation  of  omnip- 
otence. It  supposes  that  the  ruling  power 
of  the  universe  could  attain  the  end  only  at 
the  expense  of  wholesale  carnage  and  suffer- 
ing, facts  which  cannot  be  glozed  over,  and 
which,  as  the  weakness  was  not  the  fault 
of  the  weak,  but  of  their  Maker,  are  in 
apparently  irreconcilable  conflict  with  our 
human  notions  of  benevolence  and  justice. 

This,  however,  is  not  all.  We  might,  com- 
paratively speaking,  be  reconciled  to  Mr.  Drum- 
mond's  plan  of  creation  if  all  the  carnage  and 
suffering  could  be  shown  to  be   necessary   or 


12     GUESSES  AT  THE  RWDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 

even  conducive  to  tlic  great  end  of  giving  birth 
to  humanity  and  h)ve.  But  Mr.  Drummond 
himself  has  to  admit  that  natural  selection  by 
no  means  invariably  works  in  the  direction  of 
progress  ;  that  in  the  case  of  parasites  its  result 
has  been  almost  utter  degradation.  The  phe- 
nomena of  parasites  and  entozoa,  with  the  need- 
less torments  which  they  inflict,  appear  irrecon- 
cilable with  any  optimistic  theory  of  the  direc- 
tion of  suffering  and  destruction  to  a  paramount 
and  compensating  end.  Not  only  so,  but  all  the 
extinct  races  except  those  which  are  in  the  line 
leading  up  to  man  and  may  be  numbered  among 
his  progenitors,  must  apparently,  upon  Mr. 
Drummond's  hypothesis,  have  suffered  and 
perished  in  vain.  That  "a  price,  a  price  in 
pain,  and  assuredly  sometimes  a  very  terrible 
price,"  lias  been  paid  for  the  evolution  of  the 
world,  after  all  is  said,  Mr.  Drummond  admits 
to  be  certain.  But  he  holds  it  indisputable 
that  even  at  the  highest  estimate  the  thing 
bought  with  that  price  was  none  too  dear,  inas- 
much as  it  was  nothing  less  than  the  present 
progress  of  the  world.  So  he  thinks  we  "  may 
safely  leave  Nature  to  look  after  her  own  ethic." 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE    V6 


Probably  we  might  if  all  the  pain  was  part  of 
the  price.  But  we  are  distinctl)'  told  that  it 
was  not ;  so  that  there  is  much  of  it  in  which, 
with  our  present  lights  or  any  that  Mr.  Drum- 
mond  is  able  to  afford  us,  men  can  liardly  help 
thinking  that  they  see  the  ruthless  operation  of 
blind  chance.  Nature,  being  a  mere  abstraction, 
has  no  ethic  to  look  after  ;  nor  has  Evolution, 
which  is  not  a  power,  but  a  method,  though  it 
is  personified,  we  might  almost  say  deified,  by 
its  exponent.  But  if  there  is  not  some  higher 
authority  which  looks  after  ethic,  what  becomes 
of  the  ethic  of  man?  The  most  inhuman  of 
vivisectors,  if  he  could  show  that  his  practice 
really  led,  or  was  at  all  likely  to  lead,  to  know- 
ledge, would  have  a  better  plea  than,  in  the 
case  of  suffering  and  destruction  which  have 
led  to  nothing,  the  philosophy  of  evolution  can 
by  itself  put  in  for  the  Author  of  our  being. 

Mr.  Drummond's  treatise,  like  those  of  other 
evolutionists,  at  least  of  the  optimistic  school, 
assumes  the  paramount  value  of  the  type,  and 
the  rightfulness  of  sacrificing  individuals  with- 
out limit  to  its  perfection  and  preservation. 
But  this  assumption  surely  requires  to  be  made 


'Mil' 


14     GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


I 


good,  both  to  our  intellects  and  to  our  hearts. 
The  ultimate  perfection  and  preservation  of 
the  type  cannot,  so  far  as  we  see,  indemnify 
the  individuals  who  have  perished  miserably  in 
the  preliminary  stages.  Far  from  having  an 
individual  interest  in  the  evolution  of  the  type, 
the  sufferers  of  the  ages  before  Darwin  had  not 
even  the  clear  idea  of  a  type  for  their  consola- 
tion. Besides,  what  is  the  pi  jbable  destiny  of  the 
type  itself  ?  Science  appears  to  tell  us  pretty 
confidently  that  the  days  of  our  planet,  how- 
ever many  they  may  be,  are  numbered,  and  that 
it  is  doomed  at  last  to  fall  back  into  primeval 
chaos,  with  all  the  types  which  it  may  contain. 
Evolutionists,  in  their  enthusiasm  for  the 
species,  are  apt  to  bestow  little  thought  on  the 
sentient  members  of  which  it  consists.  "Man  " 
is  a  mere  generalization.  This  they  forget, 
and  speak  as  if  all  men  personally  shared  the 
crown  of  the  final  heirs  of  human  civilization. 
The  following  passage  is  an  instance  :  — 


"Science  is  charged,  be  it  once  more  recalled,  with 
numbering  Man  among  the  beasts,  and  levelling  his  body 
witAi  the  dust.  But  he  who  reads  for  himsolf  the  history 
<of  creation  as  it  is  written  by  the  hand  of  Evolution  will 


NCE 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE    15 


hearts, 
tion  of 
lemnify 
:ably  in 
dng  an 
le  type, 
tiad  not 
;onsola- 
y  of  the 
pretty 
t,  how- 
nd  that 
rimeval 
jontain, 
:or  the 
on  the 
^'Man" 
forget, 
red  the 
Lzation. 


ed,  with 
his  body 
e  history 
tion  will 


be  overwhelmed  by  the  glory  and  honour  heaped  upon  this 
creature.  To  be  a  Man,  and  to  have  no  conceivable  suc- 
cessor; to  be  the  fruit  and  crown  of  the  long-past  eter- 
nity, and  the  highest  possible  fruit  and  crown ;  to  be  the 
last  victor  among  the  decimated  phalanxes  of  earlier  ex- 
istences, and  to  be  nevermore  defeated ;  to  be  the  best 
that  Nature  in  her  strength  and  opulence  can  produce ; 
to  be  the  first  of  the  new  order  of  beings  who,  by  their 
dominion  over  the  lower  world  and  their  equipment  for 
a  higher,  reveal  that  they  are  made  in  the  Image  of  God 
—  to  be  this  is  to  be  elevated  to  a  rank  in  Nature  more 
exa)*,)d  than  any  philosophy  or  any  poetry  or  any  theol- 
ogy has  ever  given  to  man.  Man  was  always  told  that 
his  place  was  high ;  the  reason  for  it  he  never  knew  till 
now ;  he  never  knew  that  his  title  deeds  were  the  very 
laws  of  Nature,  that  he  alone  was  the  Alpha  and  Omega 
of  Creation,  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  Matter,  the 
final  goal  of  Life." 

To  be  the  last  victor  among  the  decimated 
phalanxes  of  earlier  existences,  and  to  be 
nevermore  defeated,  is,  to  say  the  least,  a  dif- 
ferent sort  of  satisfaction  from  the  glorious 
triumph  of  love  in  which  the  process  of  Evolu- 
tion, according  to  Mr.  Drummond,  ends,  and 
in  virtue  of  which  he  proclaims  that  Evolu- 
tion is  nothing  but  the  Involution  of  love,  the 
revelation  of  Infinite  Spirit,  the  Eternal  Life 
returning  to  itself.     It  even  reminds  us  a  little 


16     GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


<s 


of  the  unamiable  belief  that  in  the  next  world 
the  sight  of  the  wicked  in  torment  will  be  a 
part  of  the  enjoyment  of  the  righteous.  Per- 
haps there  is  also  a  touciv  of  lingering  geocen- 
tricism  in  this  rapturous  exaltation  of  Man. 
Evolution  can  give  us  no  assurance  that  there 
are  not  in  other  planets  creatures  no  less 
supsrior  to  man  than  he  is  to  the  lower  tribes 
upon  this  earth. 

The  crown  of  evolution  in  Mr.  Drummond's 
system  is  the  evolution  of  a  mother,  accom- 
panied by  that  of  t\.  father,  which,  however, 
appears  to  be  inferior  in  degree.  The  chapters 
on  this  subject  are  more  than  philosophy  ;  they 
are  poetry,  soaring  almost  into  rhapsody. 
'•The  goal,"  Mr.  Drummond  says,  ''of  the 
whole  plant  and  animal  kingdoms  seems  to 
have  been  the  creation  of  a  family  which  the 
very  naturalist  has  to  call  mammals."  The 
following  passage  is  the  climax  :  — 


"But  by  far  the  most  vital  point  remains.  For  we 
have  next  to  observe  how  this  bears  directly  on  the  theme 
we  set  out  to  explore  —  the  Evolution  of  Love.  The  pas- 
sage from  mere  Otherism,  in  the  physiological  sense,  to 
Altruism,  in  the  moral  sense,  occurs  in  connection  with 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE    17 


I 


the  due  performance  of  her  natural  task  by  hsr  to  whom 
the  Struggle  for  the  Life  of  Others  is  assigned.  That 
task,  translated  into  one  great  word,  is  Maternity — 
which  is  nothing  but  the  Struggle  for  the  Life  of  Others 
transfigured  to  the  moral  sphere.  Focussed  in  a  single 
human  being,  this  function,  as  we  rise  in  history,  slowly 
begins  to  be  accompanied  by  those  heaven-born  psychical 
states  which  transform  the  femaleness  of  the  older  order 
into  the  Motherhood  of  the  new.  When  one  follows 
Maternity  out  of  the  depths  of  lower  Nature,  and  beholds 
it  ripening  in  quality  as  it  reaches  the  human  sphere,  its 
character,  and  the  character  of  the  processes  by  which  it 
is  evolved,  appear  in  their  full  divinity.  For  of  what  is 
maternity  the  mother?  Of  children?  No ;  for  these  are 
the  mere  vehicle  of  its  spiritual  manifestation.  Of  afEec- 
tion  between  female  and  male  ?  No ;  for  that,  contrary 
to  accepted  beliefs,  has  little  to  do  in  the  first  instance 
with  sex-relations.  Of  what  then?  Of  Love  itself,  of 
Love  as  Love,  of  Love  as  Life,  of  Love  as  Humanity,  of 
Love  as  the  pure  and  undefiled  fountain  of  all  that  is 
eternal  in  the  world.  In  the  long  stillness  which  follows 
the  crisis  of  Maternity,  witnessed  only  by  the  new  and 
helpless  life  which  is  at  once  the  last  expression  of  the 
older  function  and  the  unconscious  vehicle  of  the  new, 
Humanity  is  born." 


I   .11 


The  father  seems  to  be  here  shut  out  from 
the  apotheosis ;  though  why,  except  from  a  sort 
of  philosophic  gallantry,  it  is  difficult  to  dis- 
cern.    The  man  who   toils  from  morning  till 


•  ii 


18     GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


night  to  support  wife  and  child  surely  has  not 
less  to  do  with  it  than  the  woman  who  feeds 
the  child  from  her  breast. 

Somewhat  paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  Mr. 
Drummond  maintains  that  love  did  not  come 
from  lovers.  It  was  not  they  that  bestowed 
this  gift  upon  the  world.  It  was  the  first 
child,  "till  whose  appearance  man's  affection 
was  non-existent,  woman's  was  frozen ;  and 
man  did  not  love  the  woman,  and  woman  did 
not  love  the  man."  Apparently,  then,  in  a 
childless  couple  there  can  be  no  love.  Here, 
according  to  Mr.  Drummond,  is  the  birth  of 
Altruism,  for  which  all  creation  has  travailed 
from  the  beginning  of  time.  This  appears  to 
him  a  satisfactory  solution  of  the  problem  of 
existence.  Yet  the  races  which  have  been  sac- 
rificed to  the  production  of  altruism,  if  they 
were  critical  and  could  find  a  voice,  might  ask 
if  there  was  anything  totally  unselfish  in  the 
indulgence  of  the  sexual  passion,  which  after 
all  plays  its  part  in  the  matter,  and  of  which 
the  birth  of  a  child  is  the  unavoidable,  not 
perhaps  always  the  welcome,  consequence.  To 
the   mother   the  child  is  ticcessary  for  a  time 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE    19 


in  order  to  relieve  her  of  a  physical  secretion, 
while   it  repays  her  care  by  its  endearments, 
the  enjoyment   of  which  is  altruistic  only  on 
the  irrational  hypothesis    that    affection    and 
don^esticity   are   not  parts   of  self.     To  both 
parents,  in   the  primitive  state  at   all   events, 
children  are  necessary  as  the  support  and  pro- 
tection  of  old  age.     Beautiful   and   touching 
parental  affection  is ;   pure  altruism  it  is  not. 
Very  admirable,  as  a  part  of  man's  estate,  it 
is ;   but  we  can  hardly  accept   its   appearance 
as  a  suli:cient  justification  of  all  that  has  bee.. 
suffered   in  the  process   of  evolution   or  as  a 
solution   of   the   mystery  of  existence.     It   is 
curious  that  Mr.  Drummond  should  place  the 
happiest  scene  of  female  development  and  aJl 
that    depends    on    it    in    the    country   where 
divorces  are  most  common  and  the  increase  of 
their  number   is   most   rapid.     He   may  have 
noted,   too,   that  in   that    same    country   and 
among  the  most  highly  civilized  races  families 
are   proportionately   small    and   fewer   women 
become  mothers. 

Then,  put  the  mammalia  as  high  as  we  will 
in  the  scale  of  being,  they  are  mortal.     Evo- 


i 


20     GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


u 


lution  tells  us  complacently  that  death  is 
necessary  to  the  progress  of  the  species.  It 
may  be  so ;  but  what  is  that  to  the  individ- 
ual ?  The  more  intense  and  exalted  affection, 
whether  conjugal  or  parental,  is,  the  more 
heartrending  is  the  thought  of  the  parting 
which  any  day  and  any  one  of  a  thousand 
accidents  may  bring,  while  it  is  sure  to  come 
after  a  few  years.  Pleasure  and  happiness 
are  different  things.  Pleasure  may  be  en- 
joyed for  the  moment  without  any  thought 
of  the  future.  The  condemned  criminal  may 
enjoy  it,  and,  it  seems,  does  not  uncommonly 
enjoy  it  in  eating  his  last  meal.  But  happi- 
ness appears  to  be  hardly  possible  without  a 
sense  of  security,  much  less  with  annihilation 
always  in  sight.  The  oracle  to  which  we 
are  listening  has  told  us  nothing  about  a  life 
beyond  the  present.  It  is  needless  to  say 
how  much  the  character  of  that  question  has 
been  altered  since  the  corporeal  origin  and 
relations  of  our  mental  faculties,  and  of  what 
theology  calls  the  soul,  have  been  apparently 
disclosed  by  science.  The  thought  of  con- 
scious   existence   without    end    is    one   which 


OUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE     21 


■; 


i 
I 


i 

i 

i 


makes  the  mind,  as  it  were,  ache,  and  under 
which  imagination  reels  ;  yet  the  thought  of 
annihilation  is  not  welcome,  nor  have  we  up 
to  this  time  distinctly  faced  it.  If  ever  it 
should  be  distinctly  faced  by  us,  its  influence 
on  life  and  action  can  hardly  fail  to  be  felt. 
Is  the  evolutionary  optimist  himself  content 
to  believe  that  nothing  will  survive  the  wreck, 
inevitable,  if  science  is  to  be  trusted,  of  this 
world  ? 

To  say  that  a  particular  solution  of  a  diffi- 
culty is  incomplete  is  not  to  say  that  the 
difficulty  is  insoluble  or  even  to  pronounce 
the  particular  solution  worthless.  Mr.  Drum- 
mond's  solution  may  be  incomplete,  and  yet 
it  may  have  value.  The  only  moral  excel- 
lence of  which  we  ha  any  experience  or 
can  form  a  distinct  idea,  is  that  produced  by 
moral  effort.  If  we  try  to  form  an  idea  of 
moral  excellence  unproduced  by  effort,  the 
only  result  is  seraphic  insipidity.  Thip  may 
seem  to  afford  a  glimpse  of  possible  recon- 
ciliation between  evolution  and  our  moral 
instincts.  If  upward  struggle  towards  perfec- 
tion,  rather   than  perfection   created  by  fiat, 


re  I 


22     GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


f    is  the  law  of  the  universe,  we  may  see  in  it, 


at  all  events,  something  analogous  to  the  law 
of  our  moral  nature. 

Mr.  Kidd's  theory  is  that  man  owes  his 
progress  to  his  having  acted  against  his 
reason  in  obedience  to  a  supernatural  and 
extra-rational  sanction  of  action  which  is 
identified  with  religion.  The  interest  of  the 
individual  and  that  of  society,  Mr.  Kidd 
holds  to  be  radically  opposed  to  each  other. 
Reason  bids  the  individual  prefer  his  own 
interest.  The  supernatural  and  extra-rational 
sanction  bids  him  prefer  the  interest  of  so- 
ciety, which  is  assumed  to  be  paramount,  and 
thus  civilization  advances.  The  practical  con- 
clusion is  that  the  churches  are  the  greatest 
instruments  of  human  progress. 

What  does  Mr.  Kidd  mean  by  reason  ?  He 
appears  to  regard  it  as  a  special  organ  or 
faculty,  capable  of  being  contradicted  by 
another  faculty,  as  one  sense  sometimes  for  a 
moment  contradicts  another  sense,  or  as  our 
senses  are  corrected  by  our  intelligence  in 
the  case  of  the  apparent  motion  of  the  sun. 
But  our  reason  comprises  all  the  mental  ante- 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE     23 


'-, 


: 


cedents  of  action.  It  is  the  man's  intellectual 
self.  To  be  misled  by  it  when  weak  or  per- 
verted is  possible;  to  act  consciously  against 
it  is  not.  Simeon  Stylites  obeys  it  as  well  as 
Sardanapalus  or  Jay  Gould.  He  believes,  how- 
ever absurdly,  that  the  Deity  accepts  the  sacri- 
fice o5  self-torture,  and  that  it  will  be  well  for 
the  self-torturer  in  the  sum  of  things.  His 
self-torture  is  therefore  in  accordance  with 
his  individual  reason,  though  it  is  far  enough 
from  being  in  accordance  with  reason  in  the 
abstract.  A  supernatural  sanction,  supposing 
its  reality  to  be  proved,  becomes  a  part  of  the 
data  on  which  reason  acts,  or  rather  it  becomes, 
for  the  occasion,  the  sole  datum;  and  to  obey 
it,  instead  of  being  unreasonable,  is  the  most 
reasonable  thing  in  the  world.  Misled  by  his 
reason,  we  repeat,  to  any  extent  a  man  may  be, 
both  in  matters  speculative  and  practical;  but 
he  can  no  more  think  or  act  outside  of  his 
reason,  that  is,  the  entirety  of  his  impressions 
and  inducements,  than  he  can  jump  out  of  his 
skin.  What  Mr.  Kidd  seems  at  bottom  to 
mean  is  that  we  may  and  do,  with  the  best 
results,  prefer  social  to  individual,  and  moral  to 


^;i 


24     GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


iMifi; 


material,  objects.  But  this  is  a  totally  different 
thing  from  acting  ao-ninst  reason,  and  while  it 
requires  a  certain  elevation  of  character,  it 
requires  no  extra-rational  motive. 

Mr.  Kidd  speaks  of  "reason"  and  the  ca- 
pacity *or  acting  with  his  fellows  in  society  as 
"  two  new  forces  which  made  their  advent  with 
man."  He  cannot  mean,  what  his  words  might 
be  taken  to  imply,  that  the  rudiments  of  reason 
are  not  discernible  in  brutes,  or  that  sociability 
does  noi  prevail  in  the  herd,  the  swarm,  and 
the  hive.  To  the  herd,  the  swarm,  and  the 
hive  sacrifices  of  the  individual  animal  or  insect 
are  made  like  those  of  the  individual  man  to 
his  community.  Is  there  supernatural  or  extra- 
rational  sanction  in  the  case  of  the  deer,  the 
ant,  or  the  bee  ? 

Altruism,  acting  against  reason  with  a  super- 
natural and  extra-rational  sanction,  is,  accord- 
ing to  Mr.  Kidd,  the  motive  power  of  progress. 
But  this  altruism  of  which  we  hear  so  much, 
what  is  it  ?  Man  is  not  only  a  self -regardant, 
but  a  sympathetic,  domestic,  and  social  being. 
He  is  so  by  nature,  just  as  he  is  a  biped  or  a 
mammal.     How  he  became  so  the  physiologist 


'E 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE     26 


:erent 
tiile  it 
er,  it 

he  ca- 
iety  as 
it  with 
might 
reason 
Lability 
m,  and 
nd  the 
ir  insect 
man  to 
r  extra- 
eer,  the 

super- 
accord- 
rogress. 

much, 
Qfardant, 
,1  being. 
Ded  or  a 
siologist 


and  psychologist  must  be  left  to  explain.  But 
a  sympathetic,  domestic,  and  social  being  he  is, 
and  in  gratifying  his  sympathetic,  domestic,  or 
social  propensities,  he  is  no  more  altruistic,  if 
altruism  means  disregard  of  self,  than  he  is 
when  he  gratifies  his  desire  of  food  or  motion. 
Self  is  not  disregarded,  because  self  is  sympa- 
thetic, domestic,  and  social.  The  man  of  feel- 
ing identifies  himself  with  his  kind;  tlie  father 
with  his  children ;  the  patriot  with  his  state ; 
and  they  all  look  in  various  forms  for  a  return 
of  their  affection  or  devotion.  The  man  in 
each  of  the  cases  goes  out  of  his  narrower  self, 
but  he  does  not  go  out  of  self.  Show  us  the 
altruist  who  gives  up  his  dinner  to  benefit  the 
inhabitants  of  the  planet  Mars,  and  we  will 
admit  the  existence  of  altruism  in  the  sense  in 
which  the  term  seems  to  be  used  by  Mr.  Kidd 
and  some  other  philosophers  of  to-day. 

Reason,  as  defined  by  Mr.  Kidd,  appears  to 
be  a  faculty  which  tells  us  what  is  desirable, 
but  does  not  tell  us  what  is  possible.  "The 
lower  classes  of  our  population,"  he  says,  "  have 
no  sanction  from  reason  for  maintaining  exist- 
ing conditions."     "  They  should  in  self-interest 


2C)     OUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


put  an  immediate  eml  to  existing  social  condi- 
tions." Why,  so  they  would  if  they  had  the 
power,  supposing  their  condition  and  the  causes 
of  it  to  be  what  Mr.  Kidd  represents.  It  is 
not  altruism  that  prevents  them,  but  necessity; 
the  same  necessity  which  constrains  people  of 
all  classes  to  submit  to  evils  of  various  kinds, 
submission  to  which,  if  unnecessary,  would  be 
idiotic.  That  poverty  and  calamity  have  been 
endured  more  patiently  in  the  hope  of  a  com- 
pensation hereafter  is  true,  but  makes  no  differ- 
ence as  to  the  reasonableness  of  the  endurance. 
From  a  comparison  of  the  two  sentences  just 
quoted,  it  would  appear  that  Mr.  Kidd  identi- 
fies reason  with  self-interest,  and,  therefore,  with 
something  antagonistic  to  society.  Whereas,  in 
a  sociable  being,  conformity  to  the  laws  of  society 
is  n  i»on.  "  The  interests  of  the  social  organism 
and  of  the  individual,"  says  Mr.  Kidd,  "are  and 
must  remain  antagonistic."  Why  so  in  the  case 
of  a  man  any  more  than  in  that  of  a  bee  ? 

What  is  the  "  supernatural  and  extra-rational 
sanction  "  in  virtue  of  which  man  acts  against 
the  dictates  of  his  reason,  and  by  so  acting 
makes  progress  ?     Religion.    What  is  religion  ? 


E 


Oir ESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE     L'7 


jondi- 

d  the 

jauses 
It  is 

(ssity; 

pie  of 

kinds, 

uld  be 

e  been 

a  com- 
differ- 

arance. 

jea  just 
identi- 

re,  with 

reas,  in 

society 

ranism 

are  and 

the  case 
? 

rational 
against 
3  acting 
eligion? 


"A  religion  i:»  u  form  of  belief  providing  an  ultra- 
rational  sanction  for  that  large  class  of  conduct  in 
the  individual  where  his  interests  and  the  interests  of 
the  social  organism  are  antagonistic,  and  by  which  the 
former  are  rendered  subordinate  to  the  latter  in  the 
general  interests  of  the  evolution  which  the  race  is 
undergoing." 

Here  is  a  definition  of  religion  without  men-  ( 
tion  of  God.     The  supernatural  sanction  is  re-  : 
ligion,  and  religion  is  a  supernatural  sanction.    1 
This  surely  does  not  give  us  much  new  light.     \ 
But  we  are  further  told  that  "  there  can  never 
be  such  a  thing  as  a  rational  religion."     Super- 
stition, such  as  the  worship  of  Moloch,  that  of 
Apis,  that  of  the  Gods  of  Mexico,  or  medijjeval 
religion   in  its  debased  form,  is  not  rational, 
nor  will   our  calling  it  supernatural  or  extra- 
rational  make  it  an  influence  above  nature  and 
reason,  or  prove  it  to  have   been   the  motive 
power  of  progress,  which,  on  the  contrary,  it 
has  retarded  and  sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of 
Egypt,   killed    outright.     But  religions  which 
in  their  day  have  been  instruments  of  progress, 
and  among  which  may  perhaps  be  numbered, 
at  a  grade  lower  than  Christianity,   Moham- 
medanism   and    Buddhism,   have   owed    their 


w,rr- 


K  \ 


28      GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


m 


mi 


\  character  to  their  rational  adaptation  to  human 
\  nature  and  their  consecration  of  rational  effort. 
They  are  counterparts,  not  of  the  polytheistic 
state  religion  of  Greece,  but  of  the  Socratic 
philosophy,  which  had  a  divinity  of  its  own, 
the  impersonation  of  its  morality,  and  paid 
homage  to  the  state  polytheism  only  by  sacri- 
,*   ficing  a  cock  to  JEsculapius.     Christianity,  as 

"i 

I  it  came  from  the  lips  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
I  was,  like  the  philosophy  of  Socrates,  unliturgi- 
■:  cal  and  unsacerdotal ;  its  liturgy  was  one  sim- 
ple prayer.  "Supernatural"  is  a  convenient 
word,  but  it  by  implication  begs  the  question, 
and  when  applied  to  superstitions  is  most  fal- 
lacious. "  Infranatural,"  or  something  imply- 
ing degradation  and  grossness,  not  elevation 
above  the  world  of  sense,  would  be  the  right 
expression.  Christian  ethics,  as  distinguished 
from  dogma,  are  not  supernatural ;  they  are 
drawn  from,  and  adapted  to,  human  nature. 

It  is  disappointing  to  find  that  a  theorist 
who  makes  everything  depend  on  the  in- 
fluence of  religion  should  not  have  attempted 
to  ascertain  precisely  what  religion  is  and  what 
is  its  origin,  or  to  distinguish  from  each  other 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE     29 


the  widely  diverse  phenomena  which  bear  the 
name.  His  sanction  itself  calls  for  a  sanction 
and  calls  in  vain. 

When  a  hypothesis  will  not  bear  inspection 
in  itself,  time  is  wasted  in  applying  it,  or  test- 
ing its  applications,  to  history.  But  Mr.  Kidd 
says  of  the  first  fourteen  centuries  after  Christ: 

"  So  far,  fourteen  centuries  of  the  history  of  our  civiliza- 
tion had  been  devoted  to  the  growth  and  development  of 
a  stupendous  system  of  other- worldliness.  The  conflict 
against  reason  had  been  successful  to  a  degree  never  be- 
fore equalled  in  the  history  of  the  world.  The  super- 
rational  sanction  of  conduct  had  attained  a  strength  and 
universality  unknown  in  the  Roman  and  Greek  civiliza- 
tions. The  State  was  a  divine  institution.  The  ruler 
held  his  place  by  divine  right,  and  every  political  office 
and  all  subsidiary  power  issued  from  him  in  virtue  of  the 
same  authority.  Every  consideration  of  the  present  was 
over-shadowed  in  men's  minds  by  conceptions  of  a  future 
life,  and  the  whole  social  and  political  system  and  the  in- 
dividual lives  of  men  had  become  profoundly  tinged  with 
the  prevailing  ideas." 

Of  all  the  actions  by  which  mediasval 
civilization  was  moulded  and  advanced,  what 
percentage  does  Mr.  Kidd  suppose  to  have 
been  performed  under  religious  influence  or 
from  a  spiritual  motive?      How  many  feudal 


30      GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


kings  and  lords  —  how  many,  even,  of  the 
ecclesiastical  statesmen  of  the  Middle  Ages  — 
does  he  suppose  to  have  been  carrying  on  a 
conflict  with  reason  for  objects  other  than 
worldly  and  under  the  inspiration  of  divine 
right?  How  much  resemblance  to  the 
character  of  the  Author  of  Christianity 
would  he  have  found  among  the  rulers  and 
the  active  spirits  of  the  community  or  even 
of  the  Church  ?  How  much  among  the  occu- 
pants of  the  Papal  throne  itself? 

Other  critics  have  pointed  out  that  Mr. 
Kidd,  to  say  the  least,  overstates  his  case  in 
saying  that  Christianity  was  directly  opposed 
by  all  the  intellectual  forces  of  the  time.  So 
close  was  the  affinity  of  Roman  Stoicism  to 
it  that  one  eminent  French  writer  has  un^  ^r- 
taken  to  demonstrate  the  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity  on  the  writings  of  the  Roman  Stoics. 
It  had  intellectual  champions  as  soon  as  it 
had  intellectual  assailants,  and  their  argumc;nts 
were  addressed  to  reason.  The  pessimistic 
melancholy  of  a  falling  empire  and  the  revolt 
from  a  decrepit  polytheism  were  also  intel- 
lectual or  partly  intellectual  forces  on  its  side. 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE     31 


In  the  recent  concessions  of  political  power 
by  the  upper  classes  to  the  masses,  Mr.  Kidd 
finds  an  example  of  altruism  prevailing  over 
reason.  That  something  has  in  the  course 
of  this  revolution  occasionally  prevailed  over 
reason  might  be  very  plausibly  maintained. 
Whether  it  was  anything  supernatural  or  ex- 
tra-rational seems  very  doubtful.  In  Great 
Britain,  for  instance,  the  extension  of  the 
franchise  in  1832  was  the  result  of  a  conflict 
between  classes  and  parties  carried  on  in  a 
spirit  as  far  as  possible  from  altruistic  and 
pushed  to  the  very  verge  of  civil  war.  After- 
wards, the  Whig  leader,  finding  himself  politi- 
cally becalmed,  brought  in  a  new  Reform  Bill 
to  raise  the  wind,  and  was  outbid  by  Derby 
and  Disraeli,  whose  avowed  object  was  to 
"dish  the  Whigs."  Of  altruistic  self-sacrifice 
it  would  be  difficult  in  the  whole  process  to 
find  much  trace. 

If  this  branch  of  the  inquiry  were  to  be 
pursued,  it  might  be  worth  while  for  Mr.  Kidd 
to  consider  the  case  of  Japan,  the  progress  of 
which  of  late  has  been  so  marvellously  rapid. 
It   appears    that   in   Japan,   while   the   lower 


Ifffp" 


32     GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  GF  EXISTENCE 


classes  have  a  superstition  at  once  very  gross 
and  very  feeble,  the  upper  classes,  by  whom 
the  movement  has  been  initiated  and  carried 
forward,  have  no  genuine  religion,  but  at  most 
official  forms,  such  as  could  not  sustain  action 
against  self-interest. 

The  cause  of  human  progress  has  been  the 
desire  of  man  to  improve  his  condition,  ever 
mounting  as,  with  the  success  of  his  efforts, 
fresh  possibilities  of  improvement  were  brought 
within  his  view.  It  is  in  this  respect  he  spe- 
cially differs  from  the  brutes.  Mechanical  evo- 
lution and  selection  by  mere  struggle  for  exist- 
ence apply  to  man  in  his  rudimentary  state  or 
in  his  character  as  an  animp.l.  Of  humanity, 
desire  of  improvement  is  the  motive  power. 
There  is  no  need,  therefore,  of  importing  the 
language,  fast  becoming  a  jargon,  of  evolution 
into  our  general  treatment  of  history.  Bees, 
ants,  and  beavers  are  marvels  of  nature  in 
their  way.  But  they  show  no  desire  for  im- 
provement, and  make  no  effort  to  improve. 
Man  alone  aspires.  The  aspiration  is  weak  in 
the  lower  races  of  men,  strong  in  the  higher. 
Of  its  existence  and  of  the  different  degrees 


% 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE     33 

in  which  it  exists,  science  may  be  able  to  give 
an  account.  But  it  certainly  is  not  the  off- 
spring of  unreason,  nor  can  it  be  aided  in  any 
way  by  superstition  or  by  any  rejection  of  truth. 


A  work  on  the  foundations  of  religious  be- 
lief by  the  leader  of  a  party  in  the  British 
House  of  Commons,  who  is  by  some  marked 
out  as  a  future  Prime  Minister,  shows,  like 
the  theological  and  cosmogonical  essays  of 
Mr.  Gladstone,  the  increasing  interest  felt 
about  these  problems,  not  only  by  divines  and 
philosophers,  but  by  men  of  the  world.  In 
Mr.  Balfour's  case  the  union  of  speculation 
with  politics  is  the  more  striking,  inasmuch 
as  his  work  is  one  of  abstruse  philosophy.  It 
is  by  metaphysical  arguments  that  he  under- 
takes to  overthrow  systems  opposed  to  reli- 
gion, and  to  rebuild  the  dilapidated  edifice  on 
new  and  surer  foundations.  He  is  thus  tread- 
ing in  the  steps  of  Coleridge,  the  great  reli- 
gious philosopher  of  the  English  Church.  It 
is  to  a  limited  circle  of  readers  that  he  appe  ils. 
Ordinary  minds  find  metaphysics  "  out  of 
their  welkin,"  to  use  the  words  of  the  Clown 


34      GUESSSS  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


in  Twelfth  Night.  They  venerate  from  afar  a 
study  which  has  en^ajed  and  still  engages  the 
attention  of  powerful  intellects.  But  they  are 
themselves  lost  in  the  region  in  which  "tran- 
scendental solipsism "  has  its  home.  They 
are  unable  to  see  at  what  definitive  conclu- 
sions, still  more,  at  what  practical  conclusions, 
such  as  might  influence  conduct,  philosophy 
has  arrived.  Metaphysic  seems  to  them  to  be 
in  a  perpetual  state  of  flux.  "The  theories 
of  the  great  metaphysicians  of  the  past,"  Mr. 
Balfour  says,  "  are  no  concern  of  ours."  They 
would  surely  concern  us,  however,  if,  like  suc- 
cessive schools  of  science,  they  had  made  some 
real  discoveries  and  left  something  substantial 
behind  them.  But  as  Mr.  Balfour  plaintively 
tells  us,  the  system  of  Plato,  notwithstanding 
the  beauty  of  its  literary  vesture,  has  no  effect- 
ual vitality;  our  debts  to  Aristotle,  though 
immense,  "do  not  include  a  tenable  theory 
of  the  universe " ;  in  the  Stoic  metaphysics 
"nobody  takes  any  interest."  The  Neo-Pla- 
tonists  were  mystics,  and  in  mysticism  Mr. 
Balfour  recognizes  an  undying  element  of  hu- 
man thought,  but  "nobody  is  concerned  about 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE     36 


their  hierarchy  of  beings  connecting  through 
infinite  gradations  the  Absolute  at  one  end 
of  the  scale  with  matter  at  the  other."  The 
metapnysics  of  Descartes  "are  net  more  liv- 
ing than  his  physics " ;  neither  "  his  two  sub- 
stances, nor  the  single  substance  of  Spinoza, 
nor  the  innumerable  substances  of  Leibnitz 
satisfy  the  searcher  after  truth."  Had  these 
several  systems  been  investigations  of  matters 
in  which  real  discovery  was  possible,  each  of 
them  surely  would  have  discovered  something, 
and  a  certain  interest  in  each  of  them  would 
remain.  But  they  have  flitted  like  a  series 
of  dreams,  or  a  succession  of  kaleidoscopic 
variations.  Mr.  Balfour  doubts  "  whether  any 
metaphysical  philosopher  before  Kant  can  be 
said  to  have  made  contributions  to  this  sub- 
ject [a  theory  of  nature]  which  at  the  pr.;sent 
day  need  to  be  taken  into  serious  account," 
and  he  presently  proceeds  to  indicate  that 
"Kant's  doctrines,  even  as  modified  by  his 
successors,  do  not  provide  a  sound  basis  for  an 
epistemology  of  nature."  Mr.  Balfour  seems 
even  to  think  that  philosophy  is  in  some  de- 
gree a  matter  of   national   temperament.     He 


36     OUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


says  that  the  philosophy  of  Kant  and  other 
German  philosophers  will  never  be  thoroughly 
received  so  as  to  form  standards  of  reference 
in  any  English-speaking  community  "until 
the  ideas  of  these  speculative  giants  are  thor- 
oughly re-thought  by  Englishmen  and  repro- 
duced in  a  shape  which  ordinary  Englishmen 
will  consent  to  assimilate."  "Under  ordinary 
conditions,"  he  says,  "philosophy  cannot,  like 
science,  become  international."  Ihis  seems 
as  much  as  saying  that  philosophy  is  still  not 
a  department  of  science,  or  a  real  investiga- 
tion resulting  in  truths  evident  to  all  the 
world  alike,  but  a  mode  of  looking  at  things 
which  may  vary  with  national  peculiarities 
of  mind  and  character. 

Locke,  as  Mr.  Balfour  reminds  us,  toward 
the  end  of  his  great  work  assures  his  readers 
that  he  "  suspects  that  natural  philosophy  is 
not  capable  of  being  made  science,"  and 
serenely  draws  from  his  admissions  the  moral 
that  "  as  we  are  so  little  fitted  to  frame  theo- 
ries about  this  present  world  we  had  better 
demote  our  energies  to  preparing  for  the  next." 
Perhaps  we  might  amend  the   suggestion  by 


1 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE     'o7 

saying  that  most  r*  js  had  better  devote  our 
energies  to  the  search  for  attainable  truth  and 
to  the  improvement  of  our  character  and  es- 
tate in  this  world  as  a  preparation  for  the 
world  to  come.  A  man  so  metaphysical  in 
his  cast  as  Emerson  is  obliged  to  say  that 
we  know  nothing  of  nature  or  of  ourselves, 
and  that  man  has  not  "  taken  one  step  towaraa 
the  solution  of  the  problem  of  his  destiny." 

Before  the  relation  of  mind  and  body  had 
been  proved,  and  while  the  mind  was  sup- 
posed to  have  a  divine  origin  of  its  own  and 
to  be  a  sojourner  in  the  body  as  a  temporary 
home  or  prison-house,  it  was  perhaps  easier  to 
believe,  as  did  the  mediaeval  philosophers,  that 
in  the  mind  there  was  a  source  of  knowledge 
about  the  universe  apart  from  the  perceptions 
of  sense,  and  that  the  world  might  be  studied, 
not  by  observation,  but  by  introspection,  and 
even  through  the  analysis  of  language  as  the 
embodiment  of  ideas.  Transcendental  Solip- 
sism and  a  world  constructed  out  of  catego- 
ries, would,  under  those  conditions,  have  their 
day.  Something  of  the  mediaeval  disposition 
seems  to  lurk   in   the   effort    to   demonstrate 


iir 


38      OUHSSHS  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


that  the  material  world  has  no  existence  apart 
from  our  perceptions.  Be  this  true  or  not,  it 
can  make  little  difference  in  our  theological  or 
spiritual  position.  The  fact  must  be  the  same 
in  the  case  of  a  dog  as  in  the  case  of  a  man. 
Most  of  us,  therefore,  will  be  content  to 
look  on  while  Mr.  Balfour's  metaphysical 
blade,  flashing  to  the  right  and  left,  disposes 
of  "  Naturalism "  on  the  one  hand  and  of 
Transcendentalism  on  the  other.  We  have 
only  to  put  in  a  gentle  caveat  against  any 
idea  of  driving  the  world  back  through  gen- 
eral scepticism  to  faith.  Scepticism,  not  only 
general,  but  universal,  is  more  likely  to  be 
the  ultimate  result,  and  any  faith  which  is 
not  spontaneous,  whether  it  be  begotten  of 
ecclesiastical  pressure  or  intellectual  despair, 
is,  and  in  the  end  will  show^  itself  to  be, 
merely  veiled  unbelier.  The  catastrophe  of 
Dean  Mansel,  who,  while  he  was  trying  in 
the  interest  of  orthodoxy,  to  cut  the  ground 
from  under  the  feet  of  the  Rationalist,  him- 
self inadvertently  demonstrated  the  impossi- 
bility of  believing  in  God,  was  an  awful 
warning  to  the  polemical  tactician. 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE     39 


Mr.  Balfour  gets  on  more  practical  ground 
and  comes  more  within  the  range  of  general 
interest  when  he  proceeds  to  set  up  authority 
apart  from  reason  as  a  foundation  of  theologi- 
cal belief.  Above  reason  authority  must  ap- 
parently be  if  it  is  apart  from  it,  for  wherever 
authority  has  established  itself  reason  must 
give  way,  while  it  has  no  means  of  constrain- 
ing the  submission  of  authority.  No  one  could 
be  less  inclined  to  presumptuous  rationalism 
than  Butler,  who,  in  his  work,  which  though 
in  partial  ruin  is  still  great,  with  noble  frank- 
ness accepts  reason  as  our  only  guide  to  truth. 
In  combating  the  objections  against  the  evi- 
dences of  Christianity,  Butler  says  that  "  he 
expresses  himself  with  caution  lest  he  should 
be  mistaken  to  vilify  reason,  which  is  indeed 
the  only  faculty  we  have  to  judge  concerning 
anything,  even  revelation."  What  is  defer- 
ence to  authority  but  the  deference  to  su- 
perior kncvvledge  or  wisdom  which  reason 
pays,  and  which,  if  its  grounds,  intellectual 
or  moral,  fail  or  become  doubtful,  reason  will 
withdraw?  This  is  just  as  true  with  regard 
to  the  authority   of  tradition   as  with  regard 


40      GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


Ki 


m 


m 


to  that  of  a  living  informant  or  adviser  ;  just 
as   true   with    regard    to  the   authority   of    a 
Church  as  with  regard  to  that  of  an  individ- 
ual  teacher  or  guide.      Authority,   Mr.    Bal- 
four says,  as  the  term  is  used  by  him,  "  is  in 
all   cases   contrasted  with   reason  and  stands 
for   that  group  of   non-rational  causes,  moral, 
social,   and    educational,   which    produces    its 
results  by  psychic  processes  other  than  rea- 
son."    A  writer  may  affix  to  a  term  any  sense 
he  pleases  for  his  personal  convenience ;   but 
the  reasoning  of  the  psychic  process  of  defer- 
ence  to  authority,   though  undeveloped,  and, 
perhaps,  till    it    is    challenged,  unconscious, 
whether  its    cause  be    moral,  social,  or  edu- 
cational,  is  capable  of  bel  'g  presented   in  a 
rational  form,  and  cannot,  therefore,  be  rightly 
called  non-rational.     There  is,  of  course,  a  sort 
of  authority,  so  styled,  which  impresses  itself 
by  means  other  than  rational,  such  as  religious 
persecution,  priestly  thaumaturgy,  spiritual  ter- 
rorism, or   social   tyranny.     But  in  this  Mr. 
Balfour  would  not  recognize  a  source  of  truth 
or  foundation  of  theological   belief.     A  phi- 
losopher   who  proposes  to  rebuild    theology, 


OUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE     41 


?y» 


wholly  or  in  part,  on  the  basis  of  authority, 
seems  bound  to  provide  us  with  some  analy- 
sis of  authority  itself,  and  some  test  by  which 
genuine  authority  may  be  distinguished  from 
ancient  and  venerable  imposture.  Papal  in- 
fallibility, which  Mr.  Balfour  cites  as  an 
instance,  does  undoubtedly  postulate  the  sub- 
mission 01  reason  to  authority ;  but  it  proved 
the  necessity  of  that  submission  by  the  exter- 
mination of  the  Albigenses  and  the  holocausts 
oi  the  Inquisition.  It  is  still  ready,  as  its 
Enoyclical  and  Syllabus  intimate,  to  sustain 
the  demonstration  by  the  help  of  the  secular 
arm. 

So  in  the  case  of  habit.  Our  common  actions 
have  no  doubt  become  by  use  automatic,  as  our 
common  beliefs  are  accepted  without  investiga- 
tion. But  if  they  are  challenged,  reasons  for 
them  can  be  given.  A  man  eats  without  think- 
ing, but  if  he  is  called  upon,  he  can  give  a  good 
reason  for  taking  food.  A  soldier  obeys  the 
word  of  command  mechanically,  but  if  he  were 
called  upon,  he  could  give  a  good  reason  for  his 
obedience. 

Mr.  Balfour  scarcely  lets   us  see   distinctly 


42     GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


what  is  his  view  of  belief  in  miracles,  which 
must  play  an  important  part  in  any  reconstruc- 
tion or  review  of  the  basis  of  theology;  an  all- 
important  part,  indeed,  if  Paley  was  right  in 
saying,  as  he  did  in  reply  to  Hume,  that  there 
was  no  way  other  than  miracle  by  which  God 
could  be  revealed.  He  seems  inclined  to  repre- 
sent the  objections  to  them  as  philosophical 
rather  than  historical,  and  such  as  a  sounder 
philosophy  may  dissipate,  intimating  that  ra- 
tionalists have  approached  the  inquiry  with  a 
predetermination  "to  force  the  testimony  of 
existing  records  into  conformity  with  theories 
on  the  truth  or  falsity  of  which  it  is  for  phi- 
losophy not  history  to  pronounce."  This  might 
be  said  with  some  justice  of  Strauss's  first  Life 
of  Jesus^  and  perhaps  of  some  other  German 
philosophies  of  the  Gospel  history.  But  the 
current  objections  to  miracles,  with  which  a 
theologian  has  to  deal,  are  clearly  of  a  historicrJ 
kind.  A  miracle  is  an  argument  addressed 
through  the  sense  to  the  understanding,  which 
pronounces  that  the  thing  done  is  supernatural 
and  proof  of  the  intervention  of  a  higher  power. 
It  seems  inconceivable,  if  the  salvation  of  the 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE     43 


world  were  to  depend  on  belief  in  miracles, 
that  Providence  should  have  failed  to  provide 
records  for  the  assurance  of  those  who  were 
not  eye-witnesses  equal  in  certainty  to  the  evi- 
dence afforded  eye-witnesses  by  sense,  t^ve 
the  records  of  the  miracles  which  we  possess 
unquestionably  authentic  and  contemporane- 
ous? Were  the  reporters  beyond  all  suspicion, 
not  only  of  deceit,  but  of  innocent  self-delusion  ? 
Were  they,  looking  to  the  circumstances  of 
their  time  and  their  education,  likely  to  be  duly 
critical  in  their  examination  of  the  case  ?  Is 
there  anything  in  the  internal  character  of  the 
miracles  themselves,  the  demoniac  miracles  for 
example,  to  move  suspicion,  it  being  impossible 
to  think  that  Providence  would  allow  indispen- 
sable evidences  of  vital  truth  to  be  stamped 
with  the  marks  of  falsehood?  What  is  the 
weight  of  the  adverse  evidence  derived  from 
the  silence  of  external  history  and  the  apparent 
absence  of  the  impression  which  might  have 
been  expected  to  be  made  by  prodigies  such  as 
miraculous  darkness  and  the  rising  of  the  dead 
out  of  their  graves?  These  questions,  daily 
pressed  upon  us    by  scepticism,   are    strictly 


r^ ! 


II 


i'J 


wm 


'  mi 


44     GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 


m 

!  .     ■ 


.1 


historical,  and  will  have  to  be  treated  by 
restorers  of  theological  belief  on  strictly  histori- 
cal grounds. 

Mr.  Balfour  recognizes  mysticism  as  an  "  un- 
dying element  in  human  thought."  That  it  is 
not  yet  dead  is  evident.  Minds  not  a  few  have 
taken  refuge  in  various  forms  of  it.  But  un- 
dying it  surely  is  not.  The  mystic,  however 
exalted,  merely  imposes  on  himself.  He  creates 
by  a  subtle  sophistication  of  his  own  mind  the 
cloudy  object  of  his  faith  and  worship.  He  has 
himself  written  his  Book  of  Mormon,  and  hid- 
den it  where  he  finds  it.  In  that  direction 
there  can  be  no  hope  of  laying  the  foundation 
of  a  new  theological  belief. 

There  can  be  no  hope,  apparently,  of  laying 
new  foundations  for  a  rational  theology  in  any 
direction  excepting  that  of  the  study  of  the 
universe  and  of  humanity  as  manifestations  of 
the  supreme  power  in  that  spirit  of  thorough- 
going intellectual  honesty  of  which  Huxley, 
who  has  just  been  taken  from  us,  is  truly  said 
to  have  been  an  illustrious  example.  That  we 
are  made  and  intended  to  pursue  knowledge  is 
as  certain  as  that  we  are  made  and  intended  to 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE     46 

strive  for  the  improvement  of  oui*  estate,  and  f 
we  cannot  tell  how  far  or  to  what  revelations  '' 
the  pursuit  may  lead    us.     If  Revelation  is 
lost,  Manifestation  remains,  and  great  mani-  > 
festations  appear  to  be  opening  on  our  view. 
Agnosticism    is   right,   if   it   is  a  counsel   of 
honesty,  but  ought  not  to  bo  heard  if  it  is  a 
counsel  of  despair. 


THE   CHURCH   AND   THE   OLD 
TESTAMENT 


hi''*'"' 


11 


THE   CHURCH   AND   THE   OLD 
TESTAMENT 


At  the  English  Church  Congress  held  in 
1895  at  Norwich,  Professor  Bonney,  Canon  of 
Manchester,  made  a  bold  and  honourable  at- 
tempt to  cast  a  millstone  off  the  neck  of  Chris- 
tianity by  frankly  renouncing  belief  in  the 
historical  character  of  the  earlier  books  of  the 
Bible. 

"  I  cannot  deny,"  he  said,  "  that  the  increase 
of  scientific  knowledge  has  deprived  parts  of 
the  earlier  books  of  the  Bible  of  the  historical 
value  which  was  generally  attributed  to  them 
by  our  forefathers.  The  story  of  the  creation 
in  Genesis,  unless  we  play  fast  and  loose  either 
with  words  or  with  science,  cannot  be  brought 
into  harmony  with  what  we  have  learned  from 
geology.  Its  ethnological  statements  are  im- 
perfect, if  not  somv^/times  inaccurate.  The 
stories  of  the  flood  and  of  the  Tower  of  Babel 
■  49 


60      THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TF  TAMENT 


are  incredible  in  their  present  form.  Some  his- 
torical element  may  underlie  many  of  the  tradi- 
tions in  the  first  eleven  chapters  of  that  book, 
but  this  we  cannot  hope  to  recover." 

With  the  historical  character  of  the  chapters 
relating  to  the  creation,  Canon  Bonney  must 
resign  his  belief  in  the  Fall  of  Adam  ;  with  his 
belief  in  the  Fall  of  Adam  he  must  surrender 
the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement,  as  connected 
with  that  event,  and  thus  relieve  conscience  of 
the  stra|»Nj)ut  upon  it  in  struggling  to  recon- 
cile vicarious  punishment  with  our  sense  of 
justice.  He  will  also  have  to  lay  aside  his 
belief  in  the  Serpent  of  the  Temptation,  and  in 
the  primeval  personality  of  Evil. 

In  Lux  Mundi^  a  collection  of  essays  edited 
by  the  Reverend  Principal  of  Pusey  House, 
and  understood  to  emanate  from  the  High 
Church  quarter,  we  find  plain  indications  that 
the  unhiatoric  character,  so  frankly  recognized 
by  the  learned  Canon  in  the  opening  chapters 
of  Genesis,  is  recognized  in  other  parts  of  Old 
Testament  history  by  High  Churchmen,  who, 
having  studied  recent  criticism,  feel  like  the 
Canon,  that  there  is  a  millstone  to  be  cast  off. 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT     61 


One  of  these  essayists  admits  that  the  "battle 
of  historical  record  cannot  be  fought  on  the 
field  of  the  Old  Testament  as  it  can  on  that  of 
the  New "  ;  that  "  very  little  of  the  early 
record  can  be  securely  traced  to  a  period  near 
the  e\dnts";  and  that  "the  Church  cannot 
insist  upon  the  historical  character  of  the  earli- 
est records  of  the  ancient  church  in  detail  as 
she  can  on  the  historical  character  of  the  Gos- 
pels or  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles."  The  jame 
writer  seems  ready  to  entertain  the  view  that 
the  "books  of  Chronicles  represent  a  later 
and  less  historical  version  of  Israel's  history 
than  that  given  in  Samuel  and  Kings,"  and  that 
they  "represent  the  version  of  that  history  which 
had  become  current  in  the  priestly  schools." 
"Conscious  perversion"  he  will  not  acknow- 
ledge, but  in  the  theory  of  "  unconscious  idealiz- 
ing" of  history  he  is  willing,  apparently,  to 
acquiesce.  Inspiration,  he  thinks,  is  consistent 
with  this  sort  of  "idealizing,"  though  it 
excludes  conscious  deception  or  pious  fraud. 
Conscious  deception  or  pious  fraud  no  large- 
minded  and  instructed  critic  of  primeval  records 
would  be  inclined  to  charge.     But  "ideal"  is 


62      THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 


apparently  only  another  name  for  "  mythical," 
and  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  myths  can  in  any 
sense  be  inspired,  or  why,  if  the  records  are  in 
any  sense  inspired,  the  Church  should  not  be 
able  to  insist  on  their  historical  character.  "  In 
detail  "  is  a  saving  expression  ;  but  the  details 
make  up  the  history,  and  if  the  truth  of  the 
details  cannot  be  guaranteed,  what  is  our  guar- 
antee for  the  truth  of  the  whole  ?  Human  testi- 
mony, no  doubt,  may  sometimes  fail  in  minor 
particulars,  while  in  the  main  account  of  the 
matter  it  is  true.  But  is  it  conceivable  that 
the  Holy  Spirit,  in  dictating  the  record  of  God's 
dealings  with  mankind  for  our  instruction  in 
the  way  of  life,  should  simulate  the  defects  of 
human  evidence  ? 

A  veil  which  in  all  the  orthodox  Churches 
hung  before  the  eyes  of  free  inquiry  when 
they  were  turned  on  the  origin  and  estate  of 
man  is  removed  by  the  Canon's  renuncia- 
tions. The  present  writer,  as  a  student  at 
college,  attended  the  lectures  of  Dr.  Buck- 
land,  a  pioneer  in  geology;  and  he  remem- 
bers the  desperate  shifts  to  which  the  lecturer 
was  driven  in  his  efforts  to  reconcile  the  facts 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT     63 


of  his  science  with  the  Mosaic  cosmogony, 
the  literal  truth  of  which  he  did  not  venture 
to  impugn.  By  a  "day"  Dr.  Buckland  said, 
Moses  meant  a  geological  period,  though  the 
text  says  that  each  day  was  made  up  of  a 
morning  and  an  evening,  while  the  Deca- 
logue fixes  the  sense  by  enjoining  the  observ- 
ance of  the  seventh  day  as  tliat  on  which 
the  Creator  rested  after  the  six  days'  labour 
of  creation.  How  the  profesf^^r  dealt  with 
fossil  records  of  geological  races  and  the 
appearance  of  death  in  the  world  before  the 
fall  of  man,  the  writer  does  not  now  remem- 
ber. It  is  not  very  long  since  a  preacher 
before  an  educated  audience  could  meet  the 
objection  to  the  Mosaic  deluge  arising  from 
the  position  of  stonet^  in  the  mountains  of 
Auvergne,  which  such  a  cataclysm  must  have 
swept  away,  by  the  simple  expedient  of  af- 
firming that  when  the  deluge  was  over,  the 
stones  had  been  restored  to  their  places  by 
miracle.  Nay,  were  not  Mr.  Gladstone's  great 
intellectual  powers  the  other  day  exerted  to 
prove  that  the  Creator,  in  dictating  to  Moses 
the   account  di  the  creation,  had  come  won- 


I     'I 

I     • 


V 


64      THE  CHURCH  AND   THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 


derfully  near  the  scientific  truth  and  almost 
anticipated  the  nebular  hypothesis? 

That  the  Bible  does  not  teach  science  apol- 
ogists are  now  ready  to  proclaim.  But  the 
fact  is  that  it  does  teach  science,  —  cosmo- 
gonical  science  at  least, —  and  that  its  teach- 
ings have  been  disproved. 

From  the  conceptions  of  science,  geocen- 
tricism,  derived  from  the  Mosaic  cosmogony, 
may  have  been  banished,  but  over  those  of 
theology  its  cloud  still  heavily  hangs.  The 
consecrated  impression  has  survived  the  dis- 
tinct belief,  and  faith  shrinks  from  the  theo- 
logical revolution  which  the  abandonment  of 
the  impression  would  involve. 

Faith  takes  refuge  in  the  substitution  of  fig- 
urative and  symbolical  for  literal  truth.  This 
is  Origen  over  again  with  his  system  of  alle- 
gorical interpretation  as  a  universal  solvent  of 
moral  difficulties  in  Scripture.  The  refuge  is 
surely  little  better  than  a  subterfuge.  The 
writer  of  a  primeval  narrative,  unconscious  of 
astronomy,  geology,  or  physiology,  believed  in 
the  literal  truth  of  his  legend.  He  had  no 
idea  of  allegory  or  symbol.      When  he  said 


THE  CIWHCll  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT     65 


six  (lays  of  creation,  he  meant  daya  and  not 
a3ons.  Paradise,  the  Trees  of  Life  and  Know- 
ledge, the  intercourse  of  God  in  human  form 
with  men,  the  Fall,  the  longevity  of  the  patri- 
archs, the  Noachic  deluge,  the  miraculous  ori- 
gin of  the  rainbow,  were  to  him  literal  facts. 
If  it  was  from  the  Holy  Spirit  that  these 
narratives  emanated,  how  can  the  Holy  Spirit 
have  failed  to  let  mankind  know  that  in  real- 
ity they  were  allegories  ?  How  could  it  allow 
them  to  be  received  as  literal  truths,  to  mis- 
lead the  world  for  ages,  to  bar  the  advance  of 
science,  and,  when  science  at  last  prevailed,  to 
discredit  revelation  by  the  exposure  ?  Besides, 
to  maintain  the  symbolical  truths  of  Genesis, 
is  almost  as  hard  as  to  maintain  its  literal 
truth.  What  symbolical  truth  is  thero  in  the 
order  of  creation  now  disproved  by  science,  or 
in  the  description  of  the  cosmic  system  and 
the  relations  of  the  sun  and  moon  to  our 
planet?  What  symbolic  truth  is  there  in  the 
Fall  of  Man,  and  how  does  it  designate  the 
rise  of  man  from  the  brute,  which  science 
shows  him  originally  to  have  been,  to  the  level 
of  civilized  humanity? 


i:\y 


¥ 


66      THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


The  history  of  every  nation  begins  with 
myth.  A  primeval  tribe  keeps  no  record,  and 
a  nation  in  its  maturity  has  no  more  recollec- 
tion of  what  happened  in  its  infancy  than  a 
man  of  what  happened  to  him  in  his  cradle. 
It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  first  book  of 
Livy  is  a  tissue  of  fable,  though  the  Romans 
were  great  keepers  of  records  and  very  matter- 
of-fact  as  a  people.  When  the  age  of  reflec- 
tion arrives  and  the  nation  begins  to  speculate 
on  its  origin,  it  gives  itself  a  mythical  founder, 
a  Theseus,  a  Romulus,  or  an  Abraham,  and 
ascribes  to  him  its  ancestral  institutions  or  cus- 
toms. In  his  history  also  are  found  the  keys 
to  immemorial  names  and  the  origin  of  myste- 
rious or  venerated  objects,  the  Ruminal  Fig- 
tree  or  the  tomb  of  Abraham.  It  is  a  rule 
of  criticism  that  we  cannot  by  any  critical 
alembic  extract  materials  for  history  out  of 
fable.  If  the  details  of  a  story  are  fabulous, 
so  is  tiie  whole.  If  the  details  of  Abraham's 
story  —  the  appearances  of  the  Deity  to  him, 
so  strangely  anthropomorphic,  the  miraculous 
birth  of  his  son  when  his  wife  was  ninety  years 
old,  his  adventures  with  Sarah  in  Egypt  and 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     67 


afterwards  in  Gerar,  evidently  two  versions  of 
the  same  legend,  the  sacrifice  of  his  son  ar- 
rested by  the  angel,  with  the  episode  of  Lot, 
the  destruction  of  the  Cities  of  the  Plain,  and 
the  turning  of  Lot's  wife  into  a  pillar  of  salt  ^ 
— are  plainly  unhistorical,  the  whole  story  must 
be  relegated  to  the  domain  of  tribal  fancy. 
We  cannot  make  a  real  personage  out  of  un- 
realities or  fix  a  place  for  him  in  unrecorded 
time. 

That  the  alleged  record  is  of  a  date  posterior 
by  many  centuries  to  the  events.,  and  there- 
fore no  record  at  all,  plainly  appears  from  the 
mention  of  Kings  of  Israel  in  Genesis  (xxxvi. 
31).  No  reason  has  been  shown  for  suppos- 
ing that  the  passage  is  an  interpolation,  while 
the  suggestion  that  it  is  prophetic  is  extrava- 
gant.    It   stamps   the  date  of  the  book,  like 

1  In  the  case  of  the  metamorphosis  of  Lot's  wife,  we  have 
the  origin  of  the  legend  still  clearly  before  us  in  the  pillars 
or  needles  of  salt,  at  Usdum,  near  the  southwest  corner  of 
the  Dead  Sea,  which  sometimes  bear  a  resemblance  to  the 
human  form.  The  natural  peculiarities  of  the  Dead  Sea 
region  are  pretty  evidently  the  source  of  this  whole  circle 
of  legend.  — See  Andrew  D.  White's  most  interesting  work. 
The  Warfare  of  Science  loith  Theology  in  Christendom,  Vol. 
II.,  chap,  xviii. 


■    h 


I 


68      THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 


the  mention  of  the  death  of  Moses  in  Deu- 
teronomy, to  get  rid  of  \7hich  efforts  equally 
desperate  are  made.  The  words  of  Genesis 
xii.  6,  "the  Canaanite  was  then  in  the  land," 
show  that  the  book  was  written  when  the 
Canaanite  had  long  disappeared,  aad  the  words 
of  Deuteronomy  xxxiv.  10,  "  there  arose  not  a 
prophet  in  Israel  since  like  unto  Moses,"  imply 
that  the  book  was  written  after  the  rise  of  a 
line  of  other  prophets.  Moreover  the  writer 
always  speaks  of  Moses  in  the  third  person. 
These  things  were  noticed  by  critics  long  ago, 
but  the  eyes  of  faith,  in  England  and  America 
at  least,  have  been  shut.  The  canon  of  Sir 
George  Cornewall  Lewis,  limiting  the  trust- 
worthiness of  oral  tradition  to  a  single  cen- 
tury, may  be  too  rigid ;  but  we  certainly 
cannot  trust  oral  tradition  for  such  a  period 
as  that  between  the  call  of  Abr^aham  and  the 
Kings,  especially  when,  the  allegod  events 
being  miraculous,  an  extraordinary  amount  of 
evidence  is  necessary  to  justify  belief. 

The  figure  of  the  patriarch  Abraham,  a  typi- 
cal sheikh,  as  well  as  the  father  of  Israel,  is 
exceptionally  vivid,  and  his  history  is  excep- 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT     69 


tionally  dramatic.  It  is  needless  to  say  that 
the  narrative  contains  episodes  of  striking 
beauty,  such  as  the  meeting  of  the  steward 
with  Rebekah,  the  scene  of  Hagar  and  her 
child  nearly  perishing  in  the  wilderness,  and 
the  sacrifice  of  Isaac.  But  to  regard  Abra- 
ham as  a  real  founder,  not  only  of  a  nation, 
but  of  the  Church,  and  as  the  chosen  medium 
of  communication  between  God  and  man, 
sound  criticism  will  no  longer  allow  us;  and 
sound  criticism,  like  genuine  science,  is  the 
voice  of  the  Spirit  of  Truth.  A  writer  in 
Lux  Mundi^  already  quoted,  avows  his  belief 
that  "the  modern  development  of  historical 
criticism  is  reaching  results  as  sure,  where 
it  is  fairly  used,  as  scientific  inquiry."  He 
significantly  reminds  churchmen  of  the  warn- 
ing conveyed  by  the  name  of  Galileo.  Why 
should  we  any  longer  cling  to  that  which, 
whatever  it  may  have  been  to  the  men  of  a 
primeval  tribe,  is  to  us  a  low  and  narrow  con- 
ception of  the  Deity?  Why  should  we  force 
ourselves  to  believe  that  a  Being  who  fills 
eternity  and  infinity  became  the  guest  of  a 
Hebrew  sheikh ;  entered  into  a  covenant  with 


m 


h: 


60      THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 


the  sheikh's  tribe,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  rest 
of  the  human  race ;  and  as  the  seal  of  the 
covenant  ordained  the  perpetuation  of  a  bar- 
barous tribal  rite?  There  have  been  bibli- 
olaters so  extreme  as  to  wish  even  converted 
Jews  to  continue  the  practice  to  which  the 
promise  was  mysteriously  annexed.  Tribalism 
may  attach  inordinate  value  to  genealogies 
as  well  as  to  ancestral  rites,  but  can  we  im- 
agine the  Author  of  the  universe  limiting  his 
providential  regard  and  his  communication  of 
vital  truth  to  his  creatures  by  tribal  lines? 
Every  tribe  is  the  chosen  people  of  its  own 
god ;  enjoys  a  monopoly  of  his  favour ;  is  up- 
held by  him  against  the  interest  of  other  na- 
tions, and  especially  protected  by  him  in  war. 
It  is  he  who  gives  it  victory,  and  if  stones 
fall  or  are  hurled  on  the  enemy  retreating 
through  a  rocky  pass,  it  is  he  who  casts  them 
down  (Joshua  x.  11).  Christianity  is  the 
denial  of  Jewish  tribalism,  proclaiming  that 
all  nations  have  been  made  of  one  blood  to 
dwell  together  on  the  earth,  and  are  sharers 
alike  in  the  care  of  Providence.  Of  the  bad 
effects  of  a  conception  of  God  drawn  from  the 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT     61 


imagination  of  Jewish  tribalism,  the  least  is 
the  waste  of  money  and  effort  in  desperate 
attempts  to  convert  the  Jews. 

Of  the  history  of  the  other  patriarchs  the 
texture  is  apparently  the  same  as  that  of 
the  history  of  Abraham.  They  are  mythical 
fathers  of  a  race,  a  character  which  extends 
to  Ishmnel  and  Esau.  In  fact  the  chapters 
relating  to  them  are  full  of  what,  in  an  ordi- 
nary case,  would  be  called  ethnological  myth. 
Of  contemporary  or  anything  like  contem- 
porary record,  even  supposing  the  Pentateuch 
to  have  been  written  by  Moses,  there  can  be 
no  pretence.  It  is  thus  in  the  absence  of 
anything  like  evidence  that  we  have  been 
called  upon  to  accept  such  incidents  as  the 
bodily  wrestling  of  Jehovah  with  Jacob,  and 
the  appearance  to  Jacob  in  a  dream  of  an 
angel  who  is  the  organ  of  a  supernatural  com- 
munication about  the  speckles  of  the  rams  or 
he-goats.  Most  picturesque  and  memorable, 
no  doubt,  are  the  characters  of  Esau,  the  typi- 
cal father  of  the  hunter  tribe,  and  of  Jacob, 
in  whose  unscrupulous  and  successful  cunning 
we  have  a  picture  such  as    the    anti-Semite 


62      THE  CllUIiCn  AND    TIIK  OLD    TESTAMENT 


would  now  (iniw  of  his  enemy,  the  tinancial 
Jew.  These  chapters  are  full  of  legends  con- 
nected with  fanciful  interpretations  of  names, 
such  as  Jehovah-Jireh  (Genesis  xxii.  14)  ; 
fanciful  accounts  of  immemorial  monuments, 
such  as  Jacob's  pillar  ;  or  of  tribal  customs, 
such  as  that  of  refraining  from  a  particular 
sinew  because  it  had  been  touched  and  made 
to  shrink  by  Jehovah  in  wrestling  with  Jacob. 
Extraordinary  simplicity  is  surely  displayed 
by  the  commentators  who  appeal  to  the 
custom  as  evidence  of  the  historic  event. 

Much  labour  has  been  spent  in  efforts  to 
identify  the  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus  and  to  fix 
the  date  of  that  event  and  its  connection 
with  Egyptian  history.  Still  more  labour  has 
been  spent  in  tracing  the  route  of  the  Israel- 
ites through  the  wilderness  and  explaining 
away  the  tremendous  difficulties  of  the  narra- 
tive. What  if  the  whole  is  mythical  ?  There 
is  a  famine  in  Palestine.  The  patriarch  sends 
his  ten  sons,  each  with  an  ass  and  a  sack, 
across  the  desert  to  buy  food  in  Egypt.  Pro- 
visions must  have  been  furnished  them  for 
their  journey,  and  of  what  they  bought  they 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT     63 


must  have  consumed  not  a  little  on  their 
journey  home.  This  seems  improbable,  nor 
was  it  very  likely  that  the  ten  should  strike 
the  exact  place  where  their  brother  Joseph 
was  in  power.  Of  the  poetic  character  of 
the  story  of  Joseph,  with  its  miraculous 
dreams  and  their  interpretations,  there  surely 
can  be  no  doubt.  Yet  upon  the  story  of 
Joseph  and  his  brethren  the  whole  history  of 
the  captivity  in  Egypt  and  the  Exodus  ap- 
parently hangs.  We  might  almost  renounce 
the  task  of  analyzing  the  rest  of  the  nar- 
rative— the  attempt  of  the  Egyptian  rulers 
to  extirpate  the  Hebrews  by  +he  strange  com- 
mand to  the  mldwives  when  they  might  have 
taken  a  shorter  and  surer  course  ;  the  contest 
in  thaumaturgy  between  the  magicians  of 
Jehovah  and  those  of  Egypt;  the  plagues 
sent  upon  the  helpless  people  of  Egypt  to 
make  their  ruler  do  that  which  Omnipotence 
might  at  once  have  done  by  its  fiat ;  the  ex- 
traordinary multiplication  of  the  Hebrews, 
whose  adult  males,  in  spite  of  the  destruction 
of  their  male  children,  amount  to  six  hundred 
thousand,   a    number   which    implies    a    total 


ir. 

i 

64 

THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 

^^ 


'in- 


population  of  more  than  two  millions  ;  their 
sudden  appearance  as  an  armed  host  though 
they  had  just  been  represented  as  the  unresist- 
ing bondsmen  of  the  Egyptians  ;  their  wander- 
ings for  forty  years  within  the  narrow  limits 
of  the  Sinaitic  peninsula,  where,  though  the 
region  is  desert,  they  find  food  and  water 
not  only  for  themselves  but  for  their  innu- 
merable flocks  and  herds  ;  their  constructiOii 
of  a  sumptuous  tabernacle  where  materials 
or  artificers  for  it  could  not  have  been 
found ;  the  plague  of  fiery  serpents  which 
was  sent  among  them  and  the  brazen  serpent 
by  looking  on  which  they  were  healed  ;  the 
miraculous  destruction  of  the  impious  oppo- 
nents of  an  exclusive  priesthood  ;  the  giants 
of  Canaan ;  the  victories  gained  over  native 
tribes  by  the  direct  interposition  of  Heaven; 
the  strange  episode  of  Balaam  and  his  collo- 
quy with  his  ass ;  the  stopping  of  the  sun 
and  moon  that  Israel  might  have  time  for 
the  pursuit  and  slaughter  of  his  enemies. 
This  last  incident  alone  seems  enough  to 
stamp  the  legendary  character  of  the  whole. 
In  vain   we  attempt   to  reduce  the  miracle, 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT     65 

which  would  imply  a  disturbance  of  lb  • 
entire  solar  system,  to  a  mere  prolongation  ^  ^ 
the  daylight.  The  Old  Testament  is  al- 
together geocentric,  and  not  merely  in  the 
phenomenal  sense.  The  sun  and  moon  are 
made  "for  lights  in  the  firmament  of  the 
heaven  to  give  light  on  the  earth,"  and  with 
them  ia  coupled  the  *:  .a^ion  of  the  stars. 
The  writer  of  the  bock  o'  Joshua  cites  the 
book  of  Jasher  as  ?  iu  nee  of  the  miracle. 
Was  the  book  of  Jashe  irspired?  Could  an 
inspired  writer  neer  ''r  rest  on  the  evidence 
of  one  who  was  uninspired? 

Whether  any  sojourn  of  the  Hebrews  in 
Egypt  or  any  real  connection  with  that  coun- 
try is  denoted  by  the  visit  of  Abraham  to 
Egypt  and  afterwards  by  the  story  of  the 
Exodus,  it  is  for  Egyptologists  to  determine. 
Nothing  certainly  Egyptian  seems  to  be 
traceable  in  Hebrew  beliefs  or  institutions. 
Of  the  appearance  of  Hebrew  forms  on  Egyp- 
tian monuments,  Egyptian  conquest  would 
appear  to  give  a  sufficient  explanation.  The 
history  of  the  Exodus  is  connected  with  the 
account  of    the  institution   of    the   Passover, 


ti 


66      THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 


and  analogy  may  lead  us  to  surmise  that 
national  imagination  has  been  busy  in  explain- 
ing  the  origin  of  an  immemorial  rite. 

As  to  the  date  and  sources  of  the  Penta- 
teuch and  the  other  historical  books  there  is 
a  flux  of  learned  hypothesis.  But  the  ques- 
tions of  what  documentary  materials  a  book 
was  composed,  and  whether  it  was  composed 
in  the  reign  of  Josiah  or  at  the  time  of  the 
captivity,  do  not  concern  us  here.  It  is 
enough  that  the  book  has  no  pretension  to 
authenticity  or  to  a  date  within  many  cen- 
turies of  the  events.  Let  it  be  observed  that 
the  Church  still  tenders  the  Pentateuch  to  the 
people  as  the  books  of  Moses,  though  a 
learned  churchman  will  now  hardly  be  found 
to  maintain  that  Moses  was  the  writer. 

We  are,  then,  in  no  way  bound  to  believe 
that  God  so  identified  himself  with  a  fa- 
voured tribe  as  to  license  it  to  invade  a  num- 
ber of  other  tribes  which  had  done  it  no 
wrong,  to  slaughter  them  and  take  possession 
of  their  land.  We  are  in  no  way  bound  to 
believe  that  he,  by  the  mouth  of  Moses,  re- 
buked his  chosen  people  for  saving  alive  the 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT     67 


womv^n  and  children  of  the  Midianites  and 
bade  them  kill  every  male  among  the  little 
ones  and  every  woman  that  had  known  man 
(Numbers  xxxi.  17) ;  or  that  he  commanded 
them  to  slay,  not  only  man,  woman,  and 
child,  but  the  dumb  animals,  everything  that 
breathed,  in  a  captured  city.  To  the  objec- 
tions raised  by  humanity  against  the  slaughter 
of  the  Canaanites,  Christian  apologists  have 
made  various  and,  as  one  of  their  number 
admits,  not  very  consistent  replies.  While 
Bishop  Butler  holds  that  divine  command  in 
itself  constituted  morality,  Mozley,  the  But- 
ler of  our  day,  holds  that  the  divine  command 
could  not  constitute  morality  had  not  the 
general  morality  of  the  people  been  on  that 
level.  Some  say  that  in  conquering  Canaan 
the  Israelites  did  but  recover  their  own,  a 
plea  which,  even  if  it  had  not  been  ousted 
by  prescription,  would  be  totally  inconsistent 
with  the  account  of  the  sojourning  of  Abra- 
ham and  of  his  purchase  of  a  plot  of  land. 
Others  maintain  that,  having  been  driven  by 
force  from  Egypt,  they  had  a  right  to  help 
themselves  to  a  home  where  they  could  find 


i 


68    THE  CHURCH  and  the  old  testament 


it,  and  to  put  all  the  existing  inhabitants  to 
the  sword.  The  bequest  of  Noah  is  also 
pleaded.  But  at  last  the  apologist  has  to 
fall  back  upon  the  simple  command  of  the 
Almighty,  which  is  justified  on  the  ground 
that  the  Canaanites  were  idolaters,  they  never 
having  heard  of  the  true  God. 

Such  examples  as  the  slaughter  of  the 
Canaanites,  the  killing  of  Sisera,  the  assassi- 
nation of  Eglon,  the  hewing  of  Agag  in 
)ieces  by  Samuel  before  the  Lord,  Elijah's 
massacre  of  the  prophets  of  Baal,  the  hang- 
ing of  Haman  with  his  ten  sons  commem- 
orated in  the  hideous  feast  of  Purim,  have, 
it  is  needless  to  say,  had  a  deplorable  effect 
in  forming  the  harsher  and  darker  parts  of 
the  character  which  calls  itself  Christian. 
They  are  responsible  in  no  small  degree  for 
murderous  persecutions,  and  for  the  extirpa- 
tion or  oppression  of  heathen  races.  The  dark 
side  of  the  Puritan  character  in  particular  is 
traceable  to  their  influence.  Macaulay  men- 
tions a  fanatical  Scotch  Calvinist  whose  writ- 
ings, he  says,  hardly  bear  a  trace  of  acquaint- 
ance with  the  New  Testament.     Scotch  Cal- 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT     69 


vinism  itself  has  in  fact  ethically  in  it  not  a 
little  of  the  Old  Testament. 

Jael,  when  she  decoyed  her  husband's  ally 
into  her  tent  and  slew  him  while  he  was  rest- 
ing trustfully  beneath  it,  broke  in  the  most 
signal  manner  the  sacred  rule  of  Arab  hospi- 
tality, as  well  as  the  ordinary  moral  law. 
The  comment  of  orthodoxy  upon  this  is :  "  If 
we  can  overlook  the  treachery  and  violence 
which  belong  to  the  age  and  country,  and 
bear  in  mind  Jael's  ardent  sympathies  with 
the  oppressed  people  of  God,  her  faith  in  the 
right  of  Israel  to  possess  the  land  in  which 
they  were  now  slaves,  her  zeal  for  the  glory 
of  Jehovah  as  against  the  gods  of  Canaan,  and 
the  heroic  courage  and  firmness  with  which  she 
executed  her  deadly  purpose,  we  shall  be  ready 
to  yield  to  her  the  praise  which  is  her  due."^ 
The  extenuating  motives  supplied  by  the  com- 
mentator are  not  to  be  found  in  the  text.  To 
reconcile  us  to  the  assassination  of  Eglon,  a 
distinction  is  drawn  between  God's  providential 
order  and  his  moral  la'vi ,  the  providential  order 
ordaining  what  the  moral  law  would  forbid. 

1  The  Speaker^ s  Commentary,  ad  loc. 


i 


m 


70      THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 

Perhaps  nothing  in  the  Old  Testament  is 
more  instinct  with  fanatical  tribalism  or  more 
revolting  than  the  praise  of  Rahab,  the  harlot 
of  Jericho,  who  sacretes  the  spies  of  the  rob- 
ber tribe  which  is  coming  to  destroy  her 
country,  and  who,  though  a  traitress,  has  a 
place  of  honour  as  a  heroine  in  one  of  the 
genealogies  of  Jesus. 

The  writer  heard  the  other  day  a  very 
beautiful  Christian  sermon  on  the  purity  of 
heart  in  virtue  of  which  good  men  see  God. 
But  the  lesson  of  the  day,  read  before  that 
sermon,  was  the  history  of  Jehu.  Jehu,  a 
usurper,  begins  by  murdering  Joram,  the  son 
of  his  master  Ahab,  king  of  Israel,  and 
Ahazial^  the  king  of  Judah,  neither  of  whom 
had  done  him  any  wrong.  He  then  has  Jeze- 
bel, Ahab's  widow,  killed  by  her  own  servants. 
Next  he  suborns  the  guardians  and  tutors  of 
Ahab's  seventy  sons  in  Samaria  to  murder 
the  children  committed  to  their  care  and 
send  the  seventy  heads  to  him  in  baskets  to 
be  piled  at  the  gate  of  the  city.  Then  he 
butchers  the  brethren  of  Ahaziah,  king  of 
Judah,  with  whom  he   falls   in  on   the   road. 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     71 


two  and  forty  in  number,  for  no  specified  or 
apparent  crime.  On  his  arrival  at  Samaria 
there  is  more  butchery.  Finally  he  entraps 
all  the  worshippers  of  Baal,  by  an  invitation 
to  a  solemn  assembly,  and  massacres  them 
to  a  man.  At  the  end  of  this  series  of 
atrocities  the  Lord  is  made  to  say  to  him, 
"  Because  thou  hast  done  well  in  executing 
that  which  is  right  in  mine  eyes  and  hast 
done  unto  the  house  of  Ahab  all  that  was  in 
my  heart,  thy  children  unto  the  fourth  gen- 
eration shall  sit  on  the  throne  of  Israel." 
Jehu  had  undoubtedly  done  what  was  in  the 
heart  of  the  Jehovist  party  and  right  in  its 
eyes.  But  between  the  sensuality  of  the 
Baalite  and  the  sanguinary  zealotry  of  the 
Jehovist  it  might  not  have  been  very  easy 
to   choose. 

David  is  loyal,  chivalrous,  ardent  in  friend- 
ship, and  combines  with  adventurous  valour 
the  tenderness  which  has  led  to  our  accept- 
ing him  as  the  writer  of  some  of  the  Psalms. 
So  far,  he  is  an  object  of  our  admiration, 
due  allowance  for  time  and  circumstance 
being  made.     But  he  is  guilty  of  murder  and 


^    \\ 


72      THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 


.1, 

•-|f 


adultery,  both  in  the  first  degree ;  he  puts  to 
death  with  hideous  tortures  the  people  of  a 
captured  city ;  on  his  death-bed  he  bequeaths 
to  his  son  a  murderous  legacy  of  vengeance ; 
he  exemplifies  by  his  treatment  of  his  ten 
concubines,  whom  he  shuts  up  for  life,  the 
most  cruel  evils  of  polygamy  (2  Samuel 
XX.  3).  The  man  after  God's  own  heart  he 
might  be  deemed  by  a  primitive  priesthood 
to  whose  divinity  he  was  always  true  ;  but  it 
is  hardly  possible  that  he  should  be  so  deemed 
by  a  moral  civilization.  Still  less  possible  is 
it  that  we  should  imagine  the  issues  of  spirit- 
ual life  to  be  so  shut  up  that  from  this  man's 
loins  salvation  would  be  bound  to  spring. 

The  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  nota- 
bly the  historical  books,  are  for  the  most 
part  by  unknown  authors  and  of  unknown 
dates.  That  the  early  part  of  Genesis  is 
made  up  of  two  narratives,  the  Elohistic,  in 
which  the  name  of  God  is  Elohim,  and  the 
Jehovistic,  in  which  the  name  is  Jehovah,  all 
experts  are  now  agreed,  and  even  the  un- 
learned reader  may  verify  the  fact.  A  com- 
bination of  two  narratives  is  still  traceable  in 


^^ 


( 


smmmm 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     73 


the  history  of  Abraham  and  his  son.  That 
in  the  account  of  the  creation  and  the  flood, 
Assyrian  legend  is  the  basis  on  which  the 
Hebrew  built  a  more  monotheistic  and  sub- 
limer  story,  is  the  opinion  of  writers  who  still 
deem  themselves  orthodox  and  who  apparently 
do  not  shrink  from  the  hypothesis  that  the 
Deity  in  compiling  an  account  of  his  own 
works  was  fain,  as  the  basis  of  his  narrative, 
to  avail  himself  of  an  Assyrian  legend.  Docu- 
mentary analysis  and  the  philosophy  of  his- 
tory combined  have  made  it  highly  probable 
that  writings,  ascribed  by  our  Bible  to  Moses, 
not  only  were  not  his,  but  were  of  a  date  as  late 
as  the  Captivity.  It  is  likely  that  the  schools 
of  the  prophets  played  a  great  part,  as  did  the 
monasteries  of  the  Middle  Ages,  in  composing 
the  chronicles  of  the  nation.  The  pensive- 
ness  of  the  Captivity  seems  to  pervade  the 
Psalms.  These,  as  has  been  already  said, 
are  matters  at  present  of  hypothesis,  and 
though  most  interesting  to  the  learned,  little 
affect  the  practical  question  whether  the  writ- 
ings ascribed  to  Moses  should  continue  to  be 
read  in  churches  as  authentic  and  inspired. 


74      THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 


''■  M 


That  they  are  not  authentic  is  certain.  It  is 
not  less  certain  that  by  whomsoever,  at  what- 
ever time,  and  by  whatever  process  they 
may  have  been  produced,  we  are  without  an 
assignable  reason  for  supposing  them  to  be 
inspired. 

Nor  do  the  Old  Testament  writers  themselves 
put  forward  any  claim  to  inspiration.  Where 
they  cite  elder  authorities,  such  as  the  book 
of  Jasher,  they  in  effect  declare  themselves 
indebted  to  human  records,  and  therefore  un- 
inspired. Preachers,  especially  preachers  of 
reform,  speak  in  the  name  oi'  Heaven.  Ori- 
ental and  primitive  preachers  speak  as  the 
inspired  organs  of  Heaven.  The  prophets, 
whose  name,  with  it-',  modern  connotation,  is 
scarcely  more  appropriate  than  it  would  be  if 
applied  so  Savonarola  or  John  Wesley,  are  in 
this  resp'ut  like  others  of  their  class.  One  of 
them  when  bidden  to  prophesy  calls  for  a 
minstrel,  under  the  influence  of  whose  strains 
the  hand  of  the  Lord  comes  upon  him  (2  Kings 
iii.  15  ;  see  also  1  Samuel  x.  5).  All  seers, 
as  their  name  imports,  have  visions.  Primitive 
lawgivers  speak  by  divine   command.      In  no 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT     76 


I 


other  way,  apparently,  is   inspiration  claimed 
by  the  authors  of  the  Old  Testament. 

Jesus  came  to  substitute  a  religion  of  con-  I 
science  for  that  of  law,  a  religion  of  humanity 
for  that  of  a  race,  worship  in  spirit  and  in 
truth  for  worship  in  the  temple.  His  preach- 
ing was  a  reaction  against  the  Judaism  then 
impersonated  in  the  Pharisee,  afterwards  de- 
veloped in  the  Talmud,  and  now  fully  repre- 
sented in  the  Talmudic  Jew.  But  he  was  not 
a  revolutionist.  Like  Socrates,  he  accepted 
established  institutions,  including  the  national 
ritual,  and  in  that  sense  fulfilled  all  righteous- 
ness. Nor  was  he,  on  any  hypothesis  as  to 
his  nature,  a  critic  or  concerned  v/ith  any 
critical  objections  to  the  sacred  broks.  Ad- 
dressing an  audience  which  believed  ia  tbum, 
he  cited  them  and  appealed  to  tho^ '  authority 
in  the  usual  way.  He  cites  the  book  <.t  Jonah, 
and  in  terms  which  seem  to  show  that  he 
regards  it  as  a  real  hiotory  ;  so  that  a  literalist, 
like  the  late  Dr.  Liddon,  took  fire  at  being  told 
that  the  book  was  an  apologue,  considering  this 
an  impeachment  o  the  veracity  of  Jesus.  Yet 
few,  even  of  the  most  orthodox,  would  now  pro- 


7G      THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 


fess  to  believe  that  Jonah  sojourned  in  the  belly 
of  a  fish.  St.  Paul  in  like  manner  treats  the 
narrative  of  the  fall  of  Adam  in  Genesis  as 
historical  and  connects  a  doctrine  with  it, 
though  the  mythical  character  of  the  narrative 
is  admitted,  as  we  have  seen,  even  by  a  digni- 
tary of  the  Church. 

The  Evangelists,  simple-minded,  find  in  the 
sacred  books  of  their  nation  prognostications 
of  the  character  and  mission  of  Jesus.  Some- 
times, as  critical  examination  shows,  a  little 
has  been  enough  to  satisfy  their  uncritical 
minds  (see  Matthew  ii.  18  ;  xxi.  5).  But 
surelj  it  is  something  like  a  platitude  to  as- 
cribe to  then  such  an  idea  of  Old  Testament 
prophecy  as  is  worked  out  for  us  by  Keith 
and  other  modern  divines.  No  real  and  specific 
prediction  of  the  advent  of  Jesus,  or  of  any 
event  in  his  life,  can  be  produced  from  the 
books  of  the  Old  Testament.  At  most  we 
find  passages  or  phrases  which  are  capable  of 
a  spiritual  application,  and  in  that  metaphorical 
sense  prophetic.  Even  of  the  famous  passage 
in  the  fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah,  if  it  is  read 
without  strong  prepossessions,  no  more  than 
this  can  be  said. 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT     77 


Beyond  contest  and  almost  beyond  com- 
pare is  the  beauty,  spiritual  as  well  as  lyri- 
cal, of  some  of  the  Psalms.  But  there  are 
others  which  it  is  shocking  to  hear  a  Chris- 
tian congregation  reciting,  still  more  shock- 
ing, perhaps,  to  hear  it  chanting  in  a  church. 
To  wish  that  your  enemy's  wife  may  be  a 
widow,  and  that  his  children  may  be  father- 
less and  have  none  to  pity  them,  is  oriental. 
To  wish  that  his  prayer  may  be  turned  to 
sin  and  that  Satan  may  stand  at  his  right 
hand,  to  wish  in  short  for  his  spiritual  ruin, 
is  surely  oriental  and  something  more.  The 
writer  in  Lux  Mundi^  already  cited,  would 
persuade  himself  and  us  that  these  utter- 
ances are  not  those  of  pergonal  spite,  but 
"the  claim  which  righteous  Israel  makes 
upon  God  that  he  should  vindicate  himself 
and  let  her  eyes  see  how  righteousness  turns 
again  to  judgment."  This  is  the  way  in 
which  we  have  been  led  by  our  traditional 
belief  in  the  inspiration  of  the  Old  Testament 
to  play  fast  and  loose  with  our  understand- 
ings and  with  our  moral  sense.  It  might 
almost  as  well  be  pretended,  when  the  Greek 


78      THE  CHURCH  AND   THE   OLD   TESTAMENT 


poet  Theognis  longs  to  drink  tlie  blood  of 
his  political  enemies,  that  he  is  not  actuated 
by  hatred,  but  has  some  great  moral  object 
in  his  mind. 

What  is  the  Old  Testament?  It  is  the 
entire  body  of  Hebrew  literature,  theology, 
pliilosophy,  history,  fiction,  and  poetry,  in- 
cluding tlie  poctr}^  of  love  as  well  as  that  of 
religion.  We  have  bound  it  all  up  together 
as  a  single  book,  and  bound  up  that  book 
with  the  New  TeyLament,  as  though  the 
religion  of  the  two  were  the  same  and  the 
slaughter  of  the  Canaanites  or  the  massacre 
of  the  day  of  Purim  were  a  step  towards 
Christian  brotherhood  and  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount.  We  have  forcibly  turned  He- 
brew literature  into  a  sort  of  cryptogram 
of  Christianity.  The  love-song  called  the 
Song  of  Solomon  has  been  turned  into  a 
cryptographic  description  of  the  union  of 
Christ  with  his  Church.  A  certain  divine, 
when  his  advice  was  asked  about  the  method 
of  reading  the  Scriptures,  used  to  say  that 
his  method  Avas  to  begin  at  the  beginning 
and  read  to  the  end ;  so  that  he  would  spend 


rilE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT     70 


three  hours  at  least  on  the  Old  Testament 
for  one  that  he  spent  on  the  New,  and  would 
read  the  list  of  the  Dukes  of  Edom  as  often 
as  he  read  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  The 
first  step  towards  a  rational  appreciation  of 
the  Old  Testament  is  to  break  up  the  vol- 
ume, separate  the  acts  of  Joshua  or  Jehu 
from  the  teachings  of  Jesus,  and  the  differ- 
ent books  of  the  Old  Testament  from  each 
other.  This  has  been  done  long  since,  men- 
tally at  least,  by  the  critic ;  but  it  has  not 
been  done  by  the  churches.  Nor  have  the 
churches  ceased  to  ascribe  the  Pentateuch 
to  Moses,  the  book  of  Daniel  to  Daniel,  and 
both  parts  of  Isaiah  to  the  same  prophet. 

We  are  told  in  th  3  book  of  Joshua  (xxiv.  2) 
that  the  ancestors  of  Abraham  served  other 
gods.  How,  or  by  what  influences,  whether 
those  of  individual  reformers  like  the  prophets 
or  of  general  circumstance,  the  nation  was 
raised  from  its  primeval  worship  to  t'"ibal 
monotheism  of  an  eminently  pure  and  exalted 
type,  seems  to  be  a  historical  mystery.  Higher 
than  to  tribal  monotheism  it  did  not  rise  ;  at 
least,  it  advanced  no  further  than  to  the  belief 


'f 


80      THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 

that  its  God  was  superior  in  power  as  well  as 
in  character  to  all  other  gods,  and  thus  Lord 
of  the  whole  earth.  Its  God  was  still  the 
God  of  Israel,  and  the  Jews  were  still  his 
chosen  people.  Nor  did  it  wholly  get  rid  of 
localism.  Jerusalem  was  still  the  abode  of 
God  when  Jesus,  according  to  the  fourth 
Gospel,  announced  to  the  woman  of  Samaria 
the  abolition  of  local  religion.  Judaism, 
therefore,  never  reached  the  religious  ele- 
vation of  some  chosen  spirits  among  the 
heathen  world,  such  as  Seneca,  Marcus 
Aurelius,  and  Epictetus ;  although  the  Jew- 
ish belief  was  more  intense  than  that  of  the 
philosophers  and  extended  not  only  to  a 
select  circle  but  to  a  portion  at  least  of  the 
people. 

No:  could  the  Jew,  hampered  as  he  was 
by  li  igering  tribalism,  form  a  conception  of 
the  universality  and  majesty  of  divine  gov- 
ernment in  the  form  of  moral  law  such  as 
we  find  in  Plato  or  in  Cicero.  There  is 
nothing  in  the  Hebrew  writings  like  a  pas- 
sage in  Cicero's  Republic^  preserved  by  Lac- 
tantius :    "  There  is  a  true  law,  right  reason, 


m  i  >■ 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT     81 


in  unison  with  nature,  all-embracing,  consist- 
ent, and  eternal,  which,  by  its  commands, 
calls  to  duty,  by  its  prohibitions  deters  from 
crime,  which,  however,  ne\or  adaresses  to 
ihe  good  its  commands  or  its  prohibitions 
in  vain,  nor  by  command  or  prohibition 
moves  the  wicked.  This  law  cannot  be 
amended,  nor  can  any  clause  of  it  be  re- 
pealed, nor  can  it  be  abrogated  as  a  whole. 
By  no  vote  either  of  the  Senate  or  of  the 
people  can  we  be  released  from  it.  It  re- 
quires none  to  explain  or  to  interpret  it. 
Nor  will  there  be  one  law  at  Rome  and 
another  at  Athens ;  one  now  and  another 
hereafter.  For  all  nations  and  for  all  time 
there  will  be  one  law,  immutable  and  eter- 
nal; there  will  be  a  common  master  and 
ruler  of  all,  —  God,  the  f ramer,  exponent,  and 
enactor  of  this  law,  whom  he  who  fails  to 
obey  will  be  recreant  to  himself,  and,  re- 
nouncing human  nature,  will,  by  that  very 
fact,  incur  the  severest  punishment,  even 
though  he  should  escape  other  penalties  real 
or  supposed."^  Equally  broad  is  the  lan- 
^Divin.  Instit.,  VI.,  8. 


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82      THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 


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guage  of  the  De  Legihus:  "Since,  then,  noth- 
ing is  superior  to  reason,  whether  in  God  or 
man,  it  is  by  partnership  in  reason,  above 
all,  that  man  is  connected  with  God.  Part- 
nership in  reason  is  partnership  in  right 
reason;  and  as  law  is  right  reason,  law 
again  is  a  bond  between  God  and  man. 
Community  of  law  is  community  of  right. 
Those  to  whom  these  things  are  common 
are  citizens  of  the  same  commonwealth.  If 
men  obey  the  same  power  and  rule,  much 
more  do  they  obey  this  celestial  code,  the 
divine  mind  and  the  supreme  power  of  God. 
So  that  we  must  regard  this  universe  as 
one  and  a  single  commonwealth  of  gods  and 
men.  And  whereas  in  states,  on  a  prin- 
ciple of  which  we  will  speak  in  the  proper 
place,  the  position  of  the  cit^izen  is  marked 
by  his  family  ties,  in  the  universal  nature  of 
things  we  have  something  more  august  and 
glorious,  the  bond  of  kinship  between  gods 
and  men."^ 

Of  a  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  no 
evidence  can  be  found  in  the  Old  Testament, 

^DeZeflT.,  L,  7. 


m 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT     83 


though  readers  of  the  Bible  who  continue  to 
use  the  unrevised  version  may  remain  under 
the  impression  that  the  doctrine  is  found  in 
Job.  Sheol  is  merely,  like  the  Hades  of  the 
Odyssey,  a  shadowy  abode  of  the  dead.  Had 
the  doctrine  of  a  resurrection  been  proclaimed 
in  the  Mosaic  books,  it  could  hardly  have  been 
denied  by  the  Sadducees ;  its  acceptance  by 
the  Pharisees  was  a  speculation  of  their  school. 
In  Ezekiel  xviii.  life  is  held  out  as  the  re- 
ward of  those  who  do  well ;  death  is  the  pen- 
alty of  those  who  do  evil.  But  the  ''life,"  for 
all  that  appears,  is  temporal,  though  the  Chris- 
tian, by  reading  into  it  immortality,  may  apply 
the  chapter  to  his  own  use.  Enoch  and  Elijah 
are  represented  as  translated  to  heaven,  not  as 
living  after  death,  nor  is  it  said  that  the  appari- 
tion of  Samuel  called  up  by  the  witch  of  Endor 
was  the  spirit  of  Samuel  himself ;  it  appears 
rather  to  have  been  like  the  apparitions  sum- 
moned by  the  witches  in  Macbeth.  The  re- 
wards and  punishments  of  the  Old  Testament 
are  temporal  and  material ;  its  rewards  are 
wealth  and  offspring,  its  punishments  are  beg- 
gary and  childlessness.     The  only  immortality 


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84      THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 


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'i^iiS'' 


of  which  it  speaks  is  the  perpetuation  of  a 
man's  family  in  his  tribe.  The  vindication 
and  requital  of  Job's  virtue  are  added  wealth 
and  multiplied  offspring.  Nor  do  we  find  in 
the  Old  Testament  that  moral  immortality,  if 
the  expression  may  be  used,  which  is  found  in 
Greek  and  Roman  philosophers,  who,  without 
speaking  definitely  of  a  life  after  death,  identify 
the  virtuous  man  with  the  undying  power  of 
virtue  and  intimate  that  it  will  be  well  with 
him  in  the  sum  of  things. 

Not  assuredly  that  the  Hebrew  literature 
lacks  qualities,  irrespective  of  its  dogmatic  posi- 
tion, such  as  may  well  account  for  the  hold 
which  it  has  retained,  in  spite  of  its  primeval 
cosmogony,  theology,  or  morality,  on  the  alle- 
giance of  civilized  minds.  The  sublimity  of  its 
cosmogony  impressed,  as  we  know,  Longinus. 
Voltaire  himself  could  hardfy  have  failed  to 
acknowledge  the  magnificence  of  some  parts  of 
the  prophetic  writings,  though  in  other  parts 
he  might  find  marks  for  his  satire.  All  must 
be  touched  by  the  beauty  of  the  story  of  Joseph 
and  of  the  book  of  Ruth.  Admirable,  we  repeat, 
are  both  the  religious  and  the  lyrical  excel- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     85 


IS. 

to 
of 


LSt 
tpb 

sat, 
5el- 


lence  of  some  of  the  Psalms.  The  histories  are 
marred  by  tribalism,  primeval  inhumanity,  and 
fanaticism  ;  but  they  derive  dignity  as  well  as 
unity  from  the  continuous  purpose  which  runs 
through  them,  and  which  in  the  main  is  moral ; 
since  Jehovah  was  a  God  of  righteousness  and 
purity,  in  contrast  with  the  gods  of  other  tribes. 
His  worship,  though  ritual,  sacrificial,  and  un- 
like the  worship  "in  spirit  and  in  truth,"  the 
advent  of  which  was  proclaimed  to  the  woman 
of  Samaria,  was  yet  spiritual  compared  with 
that  of  deities  whose  votaries  gashed  them- 
selves with  knives  or  celebrated  lascivious 
orgies  beneath  the  sacred  tree. 

Hebrew  law  is  primitive,  and  the  idea  of 
reviving  it,  conceived  by  some  of  the  Puritans, 
was  absurd.  But  it  is  an  improvement  in 
primitive  law.  It  makes  human  life  sacred, 
treating  murder  as  a  crime  to  be  punished  with 
death,  not  as  a  mere  injury  to  be  compounded 
by  a  fine.  It  recognizes  the  avenger  of  blood, 
the  rude  minister  of  justice  before  the  insti- 
tution of  police  ;  but  it  confines  his  office  to 
the  case  of  wilful  murder,  and  forbids  heredi- 
tary blood-feuds.     It  recognizes  asylum,  a  nec- 


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86      THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 


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essary  check  on  wild  primeval  passion,  but 
confines  it  to  accidental  homicide,  ordaining 
that  if  a  man  slay  his  neighbour  with  guile, 
he  shall  be  taken,  even  from  the  altar,  and 
put  to  death.  It  recognizes  the  father's  power 
of  life  and  death  over  his  child,  patria  poteatas 
as  the  Roman  called  it,  but  unlike  the  hideous 
Roman  law,  it  requires  public  procedure  and 
a  definite  charge,  while  it  secures  mercy  by 
requiring  the  concurrence  of  the  mother.  It 
recognizes  polygamy,  but  strives  to  temper  the 
jealousies  and  injustice  of  the  harem.  It  is 
comparatively  hospitable  and  liberal  in  its 
treatment  of  the  stranger.  Its  Sabbath  was 
most  beneficent,  especially  to  the  slave,  and 
strict  formality  was  essential  to  observance 
among  primitive  people.  Ordeal  is  confined 
to  the  particular  case  of  a  wife  suspected  of 
infidelity,  and  divination  is  f6rbidden  save 
by  the  Urim  and  Thummim.  The  law  miti- 
gates the  customs  of  war,  requiring  that  a  city 
shall  be  summoned  before  it  is  besieged,  and 
forbidding  the  cutting  down  of  the  fruit  trees 
in  a  hostile  country,  which  was  regularly  prac- 
tised by  the  Greeks ;  while  the  female  captive, 


iM  '1 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    87 


instead  of  being  dragged  at  once  to  the  bed  of 
the  captor,  is  allowed  a  month  of  mourning. 
Nor  is  war  exalted  or  encouraged,  as  it  was 
among  the  Assyrians  and  the  Persians.  Ser- 
vice is  to  be  voluntary  ;  captains  are  to  be 
chosen  only  when  the  army  takes  the  field,  so 
that  there  would  be  no  military  class ;  horses 
and  chariots  are  not  to  be  multiplied.  Jeho- 
vah, though  a  God  of  battles,  is  not  char- 
acteristically so.  Not  victory  in  war,  but 
peace,  is  the  normal  blessing.  Kings  it  was 
expected  the  Israelites  would  have,  like  the 
nations  around  them.  But  unlike  the  kings 
of  the  nations  around  them,  tb.eir  king  was 
to  be  the  choice  of  the  nation ;  he  was  to  be 
under  the  law,  which  he  was  to  study  that 
his  heart  might  not  be  lifted  up  among  his 
brethren ;  and  his  luxury,  his  harem,  his  accu- 
mulation of  treasure,  and  his  military  estab- 
lishment were  to  be  kept  within  bounds. 
Finally,  while  there  was  to  be  a  priestly  order, 
that  order  was  not  to  be  a  caste.  The  Levites 
were  to  be  ordained  by  the  laying  on  of  the 
hands  of  the  whole  assembly  of  Israel.  Nor, 
while  the  ritual  was  consigned  to  the  priest- 


l-f 


•  J 


t      ' 


It, . 


i\«. 
^ 


til 


'"i'l 

in 


(? 


88      THE  CHURVII  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 

hood,  was  religious  teaching  confined  to  them  ; 
its  organs  were  the  prophet  and  the  psahnist. 
Worship  was  sacrificial,  and  all  sacrifice  is 
irrational,  but  there  was  no  human  sacrifice, 
and  the  scape-goat  was  a  goat,  not,  as  among 
the  polished  Athenians,  a  man.  The  Ameri- 
can slave-owner  could  appeal  to  the  Old  Testa- 
ment as  a  warrant  for  his  institution.  Slavery 
there  was  everywhere  in  primitive  times,  but 
the  Hebrew  slave-law  is  more  merciful  than 
that  either  of  Greece  or  Rome,  notwithstand- 
ing the  ordinance,  shocking  to  our  sense,  which 
held  the  master  blameless  for  killing  his  slave 
if  death  was  not  immediate,  on  the  ground  that 
the  slave  "was  his  money." ^  The  belief  in 
witchcraft  as  a  crime  to  be  punished  by  death 
is  also  accepted  as  true,  and,  though  not  promi- 
nent, gave  birth  in  misguided  Christendom  to 
an  almost  incredible  series  of  atrocities.     How 

^  An  essay  written  by  the  author  on  the  question  *'  Does 
the  Bible  Sanction  American  Slavery?  "  has  probably  been 
long  since  forgotten.  In  its  line  of  argument  against  slavery 
as  an  anachronistic  and  immoral  revival  of  z  primitive  and 
once  moral  institution  it  was  consistent  with  the  present 
paper.  But  the  essay  was  written  in  the  penumbra  of  ortho- 
doxy and  would  now  require  very  great  modification. 


tfl! 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     89 


far  these  ordinances  or  any  of  them  actually 
took  effect  we  cannot  say.  Probably  they 
were  to  a  great  extent  speculative  and  ideal. 
The  ordinance  against  cutting  down  the  fruit 
trees  in  an  enemy's  country  certainly  was  not 
observed,  for  the  fruit  trees  of  the  Moabites 
are  cut  down,  Elisha  giving  the  word  (2  Kings 
iii.  19).  The  agricultural  polity  of  family 
freeholds,  reverting  to  the  family  in  the  year 
of  jubilee,  may  safely  be  said  to  have  never 
come  into  practical  existence,  but  to  have 
been  the  ideal  Republic  of  some  very  Hebrew 
Plato.  Nor  was  the  court  or  the  harem  of 
Solomon  limited  by  any  jealous  regulations. 

From  the  social  point  of  view,  perhaps 
the  most  notable  passages  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment are  those  rebuking  the  selfishness  of 
wealth  and  the  oppression  of  the  poor  in  the 
prophetic  writings  and  the  Psalms,  which  have 
supplied  weapons  for  the  champions  of  social 
justice.  There  is  scarcely  anything  like  these 
in  Greek  or  Roman  literature.  Juvenal  com- 
plains of  the  contempt  and  insult  to  which 
poverty  exposes  a  man,  but  he  does  not  de- 
nounce social  oppression.     In  this  respect  the 


(■■i  1 


J 


tl 
1 

I 


90      THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 


,'4  :;( 

L  *  ■  -  * 


Mahometan  and  the  Buddhist  are  perhaps 
superior  to  the  Greek  or  Roman.  But  we 
shall  hardly  find  an3rwhere  a  moral  force  equal 
in  intensity  to  that  of  the  Hebrew  prophets, 
narrowly  local  and  national  though  their 
preaching  is. 

In  forming  an  estimate  of  Hebrew  litera- 
ture we  may  have  still  to  be  upon  our  guard 
against  a  lingering  belief  in  the  inspired  char- 
acter of  the  books  which  is  apt  to  betray  itself 
in  a  somewhat  unbounded  admiration.  Much 
in  the  prophets  surely  is  rhapsody  to  which  in- 
tense self-excitement  might  give  birth.  Of  the 
history  we  have  only  the  prophet's  version,  and 
if  the  other  side  had  spoken,  complaints  of 
gloomy  and  oppressive  fanaticism  might  have 
been  heard.  It  was  hardly  well  that  modern 
religion  and  life  should  take  their  colour  from 
a  sombre  struggle  between  Jehovah  and  Baal. 
There  is  in  Hebrew  literature  comparatively 
little  of  tenderness  or  geniality,  of  humour 
nothing,  unlcFS  it  be  the  grotesque  adventures 
of  Samson  among  the  Philistines.  To  the 
growth  of  science  blind  belief  in  the  Old 
Testament, » which    represents   each   event   of 


w 


THE  CIJURVII  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT     91 


nature  as  the  direct  act  of  Jehovah,  exclud- 
ing secondary  causes,  has  been  morally  op- 
posed. Neither  of  science  nor  of  art  had  the 
Jew  any  share  ;  and  both  defects  make  them- 
selves felt. 

Religion  in  the  primitive  state  of  man  is 
identified  with  nationality.  For  a  member  of 
the  tribe  or  of  the  nation,  which  inherited  the 
religion  of  the  tribe,  to  worship  any  but  the 
tribal  or  national  god  or  gods  is  treason  pun- 
ishable by  death.  '^He  that  sacrificeth  unto 
any  god  save  unto  the  Lord  only  he  shall  be 
utterly  destroyed."  To  the  importation  of 
this  feature  of  an  obsolete  tribalism  into  Chris- 
tianity, Christendom  in  part  at  least  ewes  the 
fatal  identification  of  the  Church  with  the 
State,  the  extermination  of  the  Albigenses,  the 
religious  wars,  the  Inquisition,  the  burning  of 
Servetus.  At  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century  a  boy  was  put  to  death  by  the  Cal- 
vinistic  fanatics  of  Scotland  for  having  blas- 
phemed the  Lord  by  disparaging  the  dogma  of 
the  Trinity.  Nor  have  we  yet  got  rid  of  the 
shade  cast  over  human  life  by  superstitious 
use  of  a    literature   dark  with    struggles  of 


t    r 


I'W 


r«"' 


.IV  i- 


m 

m 


ill:; 


92      r^A'  CIWRCII  AND   THE  OLD    TESTAMENT 

religion  or  race,  stern  with  denunciation,  de- 
void of  humour  or  phiyfulness,  and  seldom 
in  touch  with  common  humanity. 

We  have  been  taught  by  philosophic  apolo- 
gists to  believe  in  Jewish  history  and  legisla- 
tion as  the  education  of  a  chosen  people 
directed  by  the  Almighty  and  leading  them 
gradually  from  a  low  to  a  high  morality, 
from  fetishism  or  primitive  superstition  to 
monotheism,  and  from  tribalism  to  humanity. 
This,  as  it  recognizes  a  low  beginning  and  a 
gradual  improvement,  is  at  all  events  a  rational 
view  compared  with  the  common  bibliolatry. 
But  Jewish  progress  after  all  is  only  a  segment, 
however  momentous  a  segment,  of  the  progress 
of  civilization.  There  is  nothing  in  it  which 
denotes  the  exclusive  action  of  deity.  This, 
since  a  broader  view  has  been  taken  of  history, 
is  almost  universally  acknowledged.  Then  the 
education  thus  designated  as  divine,  —  in  what 
did  it  end  ?  In  the  Jews  of  Ezra,  with  their  in- 
tensified tribalism  and  self-estrangement  from 
humanity,  not  only  renouncing  intermarriage 
with  other  races,  but  ruthlessly  putting  away 
the  wives,  mothers,  and  children  with  whom 


TIlJi:  Vlli'liVlI  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT     93 


they  luid  been  living  ;  in  Pharisaism  ;  in  cere- 
monialism, the  most  irrational  and  oppressive  ; 
in  Jewish  angelology  and  demonology,  the 
eraziest  of  superstitions ;  in  the  Talmud  with 
its  extravagant  legalism  and  its  unspeakable 
nonsense  ;  in  the  murder  of  the  great  Teacher 
of  humanity  and  the  rejection  of  bis  Gospel ; 
in  the  perpetuation  of  tribalism  of  the  most 
hateful  kind  by  a  vast  cosmopolitan  race  of 
usurers  wandering  over  the  world  without  a 
eoimtry,  treating,  in  their  pride  of  race,  their 
fellowmen  as  gentiles  and  unclean,  preying  on 
all  the  nations,  and  inevitably  hated  by  them 
all. 

If  Jerusalem  may  be  credited  with  Christian- 
ity as  her  final  development,  papal  Home  may 
be  credited  with  the  religion  of  the  Refor- 
mation. There  is  a  continuity,  there  is  an  en- 
during element  in  both  cases.  The  Sanhedrim  \ 
understood  Judaism,  and  when  it  yelled  "  Cru- 
cify him"  it  knew  what  the  relation  was  be- 
tween its  own  religion  and  the  teaching  of  / 
Christ.  "^ 

That  which  is  not  a  supernatural  revelation 
may  still,  so  far  as  it  is  good,  be  a  manifestation 


*, 


4  J 


Ml 


'■A'l: 


94      THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 

of  the  divine.  As  a  manifestation  of  the 
divine  the  Hebrew  books,  teaching  righteous- 
ness and  purity,  may  keep  their  place  in  our 
love  and  admiration  for  ever ;  while  of  their 
tribalism,  their  intolerance,  their  religious 
cruelty,  we  for  ever  take  our  leave.  The  time 
has  surely  come  when  as  a  supernatural  reve- 
lation they  should  be  frankly  though  reverently 
laid  aside,  and  no  more  allowed  to  cloud  the 
vision  of  free  inquiry  or  to  cast  the  shadow 
of  primeval  religion  and  law  over  our  modern 
life. 

It  surely  is  useless  and  paltering  with  the 
truth  to  set  up,  like  the  writer  in  Lux  Mundi, 
and  other  rationalistic  apologists,  the  figment 
of  a  semi-inspiration.  An  inspiration  which 
errs,  which  contradicts  itself,  which  dictat^^s 
manifest  incredibilities,  such  as  the  stopping 
of  the  sun,  Balaam's  speakin'r  ass,  Elisha's 
avenging  bears,  or  the  transformation  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, is  no  inspiration  at  all.  It  requires 
the  supplementary  action  of  human  criticism 
to  winnow  the  divine  from  the  human,  the 
truth  from  the  falsehood ;  and  the  result  of  the 
process  varies  with  the  personal  tendencies  of 


S")*^: 


ill:: 


It;  .  1  ' 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT     95 


»» 


the  critics.  The  use  of  the  phrase  "  inspiration 
when  the  belief  has  really  been  abandoned  is 
worse  than  weak  ;  it  is  Jesuitical,  and  will  end 
as  all  Jesuitry  must  end.  Those  who  try  to 
break  the  fall  of  orthodoxy  will  only  make  the 
fall  heavier  at  last.  When  we  are  told  that 
there  are  in  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  both 
a  human  and  a  divine  element,  we  must  ask 
by  what  test  the  divine  is  to  be  distinguished 
from  the  Jiuman  and  proved  to  be  divine. 
Nobody  would  ever  have  thought  of  "partial 
inspiration"  except  as  an  expedient  to  cover 
retreat.  We  do  but  tamper  with  our  own 
imderstandings  and  consciences  by  such  at- 
tempts at  once  to  hold  on  and  let  go,  to  retain 
the  shadow  of  the  belief  when  the  substance  has 
passed  away.  Far  better  it  is,  whatever  the 
effort  may  cost,  honestly  to  admit  that  the 
sacred  books  of  the  Hebrews,  granting  their 
superiority  to  the  sacred  books  of  other  nations, 
are,  like  the  sp,cred  books  of  other  nations,  the 
vrorks  of  man  and  not  of  God.  Compared  with 
the  semi-inspirationist,  the  believers  in  verbal 
inspiration,  of  whom  some  still  remain,  des- 
perate as  are  the  difficulties  with  which  they 


96      THE  CHURCH  AXD   THE  OLD   TESTAMENT 


blilH: 


have  to  contend,  stand  upon  firm  ground. 
Verbal  inspiration  i'^  at  all  events  a  consecrated 
tradition  as  well  as  a  consistent  view.  Semi- 
inspiration  is  a  subterfuge  and  nothing  more. 

That  the  semi-inspiration  theory  is  entirely 
new  and  has  sprung  up  to  meet  the  inroads  of 
destructive  criticism,  those  who  have  embraced 
it  do  not  deny.  Yet  Providence  would  surely 
have  shown  a  curious  indifference  to  its  own 
ends  if  it  had  so  constructed  revelation  that  a 
false  view  of  it,  entailing  the  most  disastrous 
constquences,  should  have  inevitably  prevailed 
and  been  disseminated  through  all  the  churches 
till  now. 

These  are  troublous  times.  The  trouble  is 
everywhere :  in  politics,  in  the  social  system, 
in  religion.  But  the  storm-centre  seems  to 
be  in  the  region  of  religion.  The  fundamental 
beliefs  on  which  our  social  system  has  partly 
rested  are  giving  way.  To  replace  them 
before  the  edifice  faH«,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  give  us  such  knowledge  as  may  be  attainable 
of  man's  estate  pnd  destiny,  thought  must  be 
entirely  free. 


II: 


-.1 


K': 


'!.■ 


■'  n 


IS  THERE   ANOTHER  LIFE? 


•1  •! 


'    X  > 


im 


( 

J  * 

J  • 

,J 

5 
^ 

1-! 

i; 

1 

IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


The  appearance  of  a  portly  and  learned 
volume  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Salmond  on  The 
Christian  Doctrine  of  Immortality  shows  the 
anxious  interest  which  has  been  awakened  in 
these  questions.  His  treatment  of  the  subject 
also  recognizes  the  necessity  which  is  felt  of 
perfectly  free  though  reverent  inquiry,  as  our 
sole  way  of  salvation  amidst  the  perplexities, 
theological,  social,  and  moral,  in  which  we 
are  now  involved.  For  himself,  he  unreserv- 
edly accepts  the  Christian  revelation.  Chris- 
tianity, he  is  so  happy  as  to  believe,  "has 
translated  the  hope  of  immortality  from  a 
guess,  a  dream,  a  longing,  a  probability,  into 
a  certainty,  and  has  done  this  by  interpreting 
us  to  ourselves  and  confirming  the  voice  of 
prophecy  within  us."  But  he  subjects  the 
sacred  records  of  Christianity  to  critical  exam- 

99 


r% 


100 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


B 


l'  M 


i-H 


¥% 


;^^i;' 
zM 


''iW. 


ination.  He  does  not  talk  effete  orthodoxy 
to  an  age  of  reason.  Nor  does  he  rest  upon 
the  evidence  of  Revelation  alone.  He  en- 
deavours to  combine  with  it  that  of  Manifesta- 
tion as  presented  by  reason  and  history. 

The  change  made  by  Darwin's  great  dis- 
covery—  as,  with  all  rights  of  modification 
reserved,  it  may  surely  be  called,^  —  in  our 
notions  regarding  the  origin  of  our  species 
could  not  fail  to  stimulate  curiosity  as  to  its 
destiny.  We  held,  it  is  true,  before  Darwin 
that  man  had  been  formed  out  of  the  dust ; 
in  that  respect  our  ideas  have  undergone  no 
change.  It  is  true  also  that  whatever  our 
origin  may  have  been,  and  through  whatever 
process  we  may  have  gone,  we  are  what  we 
are,  none  the  less  for  Darwin's  discovery ; 
while   the  fact  that  we  have   risen  from   the 

1 1  once  ventured  to  ask  an  eminent  Darwinian  whether 
lie  thought  that  within  any  limit  of  time  assignable  for  tue 
duration  of  bird  life  upon  this  planet,  the  Darwinian  pro- 
cess of  natural  selection  could  have  produced  a  bird  which 
should  build  a  nest  in  anticipation  of  laying  an  egg.  He 
said  that  account  must  be  taken  of  the  faculty  of  imitation. 
To  which  the  reply  was,  that  to  produce  that  faculty  another 
Darwinian  process,  extending  through  countless  aeons, 
would  be  required. 


i  !| 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


101 


dust  or  from  the  condition  of  the  worm,  in- 
stead of  leading  us  to  despair,  ought  rather 
to  hispire  us  with  hope.  Still,  before  Darwin 
we  rested  in  the  belief  that  man  had  been 
called  into  existence  by  a  separate  creation,  in 
virtue  of  which  he  was  a  being  apart  from  all 
other  animals;  and  this  belief  has  by  Darwin 
been  dispelled.  A  being  apart  from  the  other 
animals  man  remains  in  virtue  of  his  reason, 
of  which  other  animals  have,  at  most,  only  the 
rudiments,  and  yet  more  perhaps  in  virtue  of 
his  aspirations  and  his  capacity  for  improve- 
ment, of  which  even  the  most  intelligent  of 
the  other  animals,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  have 
no  share.  He  alone  pursues  moral  good ;  he 
alone  is  religious ;  he  alone  is  speculative, 
looking  before  and  after ;  he  alone  feels  the 
influence  of  beauty  and  expresses  his  sense  of 
it  in  poetry  and  art ;  what  is  lust  in  brutes  in 
him  alone  is  love ;  he  alone  thinks  or  dreams 
that  there  is  in  him  anything  that  ought  not 
to  die.  Yet  Darwin's  discovery  has  effaced 
the  impassable  line  which  we  took  to  liave 
been  drawn  by  a  separate  creation  between 
man  and  the  beasts  which  perish. 


f  ."J 
(f 


102 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFjH? 


Science,  moreover,  Darwinian  and  general, 
has  put  an  end  to  the  traditional  belief  in 
the  soul  as  a  being  separate  from  the  body, 
breathed  into  the  body  by  a  distinct  act  of 
the  Creator,  pent  up  in  it  as  in  a  prison-house, 
beating  spiritually  against  the  bars  of  the  flesh 
and  looking  to  be  set  free  by  death.  Soul 
and  body,  we  now  know,  form  an  indivisible 
whole,  the  nature  of  man  being  one,  enfolded 
at  first  in  the  same  embryo,  advancing  in  all 
its  parts  and  aspects  through  the  same  stages 
to  maturity,  and  succumbing  at  last  to  the 
.same  decay.  Not  that  this  makes  our  nature 
more  material  in  the  gross  sense  of  that  term. 
Spirituality  is  an  attribute  of  moral  elevation 
and  aspiration,  not  of  the  composition  of  the 
organism.  Tyndall  called  himself  a  "materi- 
alist," yet  no  man  was  ever  less  so  in  the 
gross  sense.  If  we  wish  to  see^clearly  in  these 
matters  it  might  be  almost  better  to  suspend 
for  a  time  our  use  of  the  word  "soul,"  with 
its  traditional  connotation  of  antagonism  to 
the  body,  and  to  speak  only  of  the  higher  life 
or  of  spiritual  aim  and  effort. 

We   have,  moreover,  in   approaching    these 


It   ■. 
■'ii)-' 


.')■•- 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


103 


questions  to  clear  our  minds  entirely  of  geo- 
centricism,  theological  and  philosophical  as 
well  as  physical,  of  our  notions  of  this  earth 
as  the  centre  of  the  universe  and  the  grand 
scene  of  providential  action,  and  at  the  same 
time  of  the  ideas  of  our  religious  infancy 
about  the  Mosaic  beginning  and  the  Apoca- 
lyptic end  of  things.  We  have  wholly  to 
banish  the  creations  of  Milton's  fancy,  so 
strongly  impressed  upon  our  imaginations,  as 
well  as  the  Ptolemaic  cosmography,  and  think 
no  more  of  a  heaven  above  and  an  earth  be- 
low, with  angels  ascending  and  descending 
between  them,  or  of  a  court  of  heaven  look- 
ing down  upon  the  earth.  We  must  float  out 
in  thought  into  a  universe  without  a  centre, 
without  limit,  without  beginning  or  end,  of 
which  all  that  we  see  on  a  starlight  night  is 
but  a  point,  in  which  we  ourselves  are  but 
living  and  conscious  atoms.  To  fathom  the 
mystery  of  the  universe, — that  is,  the  mystery 
of  existence,-  we  cannot  hope.  Of  eternity 
and  infinity  we  can  form  no  notion ;  we  can 
think  of  them  only  as  time  and  space  extended 
without  limit,  a  conception  which  involves  a 


<[ 


.ii 


104 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


metaphysical  absurdity,  since  of  space  and 
time  we  must  always  think  as  divisible  into 
parts,  while  of  infinity  or  eternity  there  can 
be  no  division.  The  thought  of  eternal  ex- 
istence, even  of  a  life  of  eternal  happiness, 
if  we  dwell  upon  it,  turns  the  brain  giddy ; 
it  is  a  sort  of  mental  torture  to  attempt  to 
realize  the  idea. 

The  doctrine  of  a  future  life  with  rewards 
for  the  good  and  punishment  for  the  wicked, 
as  we  all  know,  pervades  the  New  Testament. 
That  this  present  world  is  evil,  and  Christians 
must  look  forward  to  a  better,  is  the  senti- 
ment of  the  Founder  of  Christianity  and  of 
all  the  Christian  churches.  It  could  not  fail 
to  be  fostered  by  the  state  of  the  world, 
especially  of  a  province  like  Galilee,  under  the 
Roman  Empire.  The  Christian  martyrdoms 
are  a  signal  testimony  to  -the  same  belief. 
Yet  the  doctrine  can  hardly  be  said  to  be 
so  distinctly  stated  in  the  New  Testament 
as  its  overwhelming  importance  might  have 
led  us  to  expect.  It  is  in  fact  rather  as- 
sumed than  stated.  The  passages  concern- 
ing it   are    rather    homiletic   than   dogmatic ; 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE 


105 


they  are  enforcements  of  the  infinite  blessed- 
ness of  piety  and  goo'  ness,  of  the  infinite 
curse  attending  wickedness,  rather  than  enun- 
ciations of  an  article  for  a  creed.  Nor  is 
anything  explicitly  said  as  to  the  manner  in 
which  the  mortal  is  to  put  on  immortality, 
or  as  to  the  state  and  occupations  of  the 
blessed  in  the  next  world.  White  robes, 
harps,  palm  branches,  a  city  of  gold  and 
jewels,  are  not  spiritual;  they  must  be  taken 
as  material  imagery  ;  taken  literally,  they 
provoke  the  derision  of  the  sceptic. 

Difficulties  crowd  upon  us  and  severely  tax 
the  exegetical  resources  of  Dr.  Salmond.  A 
sudden  and  absolute  change  of  nature  is  con- 
trary to  all  our  experience,  which  would  lead 
us  to  believe  that  gradual  progress  is  the 
law.  The  disproportion  of  eternal  rewards 
and  punishments  to  the  merits  or  sins  of 
man's  short  life  is  profoundly  repugnant  to 
our  moral  sense.  When  we  take  in  the 
cases  of  children,  of  savages,  of  the  hapless 
offspring  of  the  slums,  of  the  heathen  who 
have  never  heard  the  Word,  the  difficulty  is 
immensely  increased. 


'     (I 


100 


rs  riiKHK  Ay  OTHER  life? 


kw     ' 


W    ^'1 


;< 

:i^' 


V 

■11:1 
If  5 


I 


In  all  ilio  iilmrehes  thoru  is  now  a  revolt 
against  the  belief  in  eternal  fire,  which,  never- 
theless, if  the  Gospel  is  to  be  taken  literally, 
it  would  seem  difficult  to  avoid.  Such  a 
belief  in  fact  can  hardly  be  thought  ever  to 
have  gained  a  practical  hold  on  the  raind  ; 
if  it  had,  it  would  almost  have  dissolved  hu- 
manity with  terror.  Imagination  could  not 
have  played  with  the  idea  as  it  does  in  the 
poem  of  Dante,  where  God,  with  his  everlast- 
ing torture-house,  is  a  thousand  times  more 
cruel  than  Eccelino  or  the  tyrants  of  Milan. 

Nor  is  there  in  reality  any  such  line  of  de- 
marcation between  the  good  and  the  wicked 
as  that  drawn  in  the  homiletic  language  of 
the  Gospel  between  the  wheat  and  the  tares, 
between  the  sheep  and  the  goats,  between 
the  people  of  the  wide  and  those  of  the  nar- 
row gate.  Between  the  extreme  points  of 
goodness  and  wickedness  there  are  gradations 
of  character  in  number  infinite  and  fluctuat- 
ing from  hour  to  hour.  The  Roman  Catholic 
Church  tries  to  meet  this  difficulty  by  the 
invention  of  Purgatory,  which,  it  is  needless 
to  say,  is  a  creation  of  her  own.     In  this  case 


JS  TUERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


m 


also  the  difficulty  is  enhanced  when  wo  take 
in  children  and  those  on  whom  circumstances 
have  borne  so  hardly  as  almost  to  preclude 
volition. 

Is  the  doctrine  of  resurrection  to  be  extended 
to  every  being  that  has  borne  human  form, — 
the  Caliban  just  emerging  from  the  ape,  the 
cave-dweller,  the  Carib,  the  idiot,  as  well  as 
the  infant  in  whom  reason  and  morality  hud 
barely  dawned  ?    Where  can  the  line  be  drawn  ? 

Nor  are  the  passages  in  the  Gospel  concern- 
ing the  future  state,  if  pressed  literally,  alto- 
gether consistent  with  each  other,  at  least 
with  regard  to  the  mode  of  the  transition. 
The  idea  generally  presented  is  that  of  a  final 
judgment  in  which  the  good  are  to  be  sepa- 
rated from  the  wicked,  the  good  entering  into 
eternal  joy,  the  wicked  into  eternal  fire,  and 
of  a  period  of  sleep  or  unconsciousness  which 
is  to  last  till  the  Judgment  Day.  But  this 
is  not  consistent  with  the  parable  of  Dives 
and  Lazarus,  with  the  preaching  of  Christ  to 
the  souls  in  prison,  or  with  the  words  of 
Chrifat  on  the  cross  to  the  penitent  thief. 
These  variations  become  more  important  when 


,iM 


W     I 


r'.. 


it-''i 


It       .'  j 


108 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


we  consider  the  unspeakably  vital  character 
of  the  doctrine. 

Resurrection  of  the  body  is  an  article  of 
the  Creed.  It  presents  insuperable  difficul- 
ties ;  not  only  are  the  particles  of  the  body 
dispersed,  but  they  must  often  be  incorpo- 
rated into  other  bodies.  Besides,  is  a  babe 
to  rise  again  a  babe,  and  is  an  old  man  to 
rise  with  the  body  of  old  age  ?  Devices  for 
meeting  such  difficulties  may  be  found ;  but 
they  are  devices  and  not  solutions.  St. 
Paul's  answer  to  doubters  involves  the  false 
analogy  of  the  seed,  which  germinates  when 
he  fancies  that  it  dies. 

It  is  on  the  Christian  revelation  that  our 
hope  has  hitherto  rested.  Butler,  when  he 
applies  reason  to  the  question  of  a  future  life, 
has  revelation  all  the  time  in  reserve.  He 
professes  not  to  offer  independent  proof  of 
the  doctrine,  but  merely  to  disarm  Reason  of 
the  objections  which  she  might  urge  against 
Revelation.  Of  independent  proof,  with  def- 
erence be  it  said,  he  offers,  not  so  much  as, 
with  our  present  scientific  lights  at  all  events, 
will  amount    even    to    a    serious    intimation. 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


109 


Assuming,  after  the  fashion  of  his  day,  that 
the  soul  is  a  being  apart  from  the  body,  he 
suggests  that  it  may  be  a  simple  monad,  inde- 
cerptible  and  therefore  indestructible,  or  at 
least  not  presumably  liable  to  dissolution  when 
the  body  is  dissolved.  But  we  know  that 
his  presumption  is  unfounded,  and  that  what 
he  calls  the  soul  is  but  the  higher  and  finer 
activity  of  our  general  frame.  He  says  that 
the  faculties  and  emotions  sometimes  remain 
unaffected  by  mortal  Jisease  even  at  the  point 
of  death.  But  they  do  not  remain  unaffected 
by  a  disease  of  the  brain.  His  strongest  point 
perhaps  is  the  unbroken  continuance  of  con- 
scious identity  notwithstanding  the  change 
of  our  bodily  frame  by  the  flux  of  its  compo- 
nent particles,  and  in  spite  of  sleep  and  fits 
of  insensibility.  But  the  flux  of  particles  or 
the  suspension  of  consciousness  by  sleep  or  a 
fainting  fit  is  a  different  thing  from  total 
dissolution,  such  as  takes  place  when  the  body 
moulders  in  the  grave.  Besides,  the  phe- 
nomenon is  common  to  us  with  brutes,  and 
the  objection  that  this  or  any  other  of  But- 
ler's arguments  would  apply  as  well  to  brutes 


lf]l  ci 


t'-'l 


110 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


tiH-n 


I:  , 


1: 


.n 


li'h 


!^iis 


as  to  man  is  not  to  be  evaded  by  calling 
it  invidious.  The  great  +hinker  would  per- 
haps have  seen  this  more  clearly  had  he  lived 
in  the  Darwinian  age  and  been  disenchanted 
of  his  belief  in  the  special  breathing  of  a  soul 
into  man.  He  is  so  far  from  our  present 
point  of  view  as  to  think  that  dreams  are  prod- 
ucts of  the  mind  acting  apart  from  the  bodily 
sense.     Do  not  dogs  also  dream? 

There  are  those  who,  like  Mr.  Francis 
Newman  when  he  wrote  TJie  Soul,  discard  all 
arguments  on  this  subject  addressed  to  the 
intellect  apart  from  the  intuitions  of  the  spirit- 
ual man.  Intuition  is  incommunicable,  and 
it  is  to  the  intellect  alone  that  arguments  can 
be  addressed.  Besides,  if  intuition  or  faith 
were  traced  to  its  source,  it  might  be  found 
to  have  sprung  from  an  intellectual  convic- 
tion implanted  in  early  years.  The  existence 
of  such  a  faculty  as  religious  intuition  inde- 
pendent of  any  action  of  the  intellect  would 
surely  be  difficult  to  demonstrate. 

The  great  thinkers  of  antiquity,  while  they 
lacked  our  modern  science,  had  the  advantage, 
when  they  had  once   thrown  off  their  state 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


Ill 


polytheism,  of  studying  the  problem  of  exis- 
tence with  minds  free  from  ecclesiastical  or 
theological  prepossession.  Of  the  two  greatest 
of  them  Plato  believed  intensely  in  a  future 
life,  for  which  this  present  life  is  but  a  train- 
ing, and  in  a  future  state  of  rewards  and 
punishments.  His  arguments,  put  into  the 
mouth  of  Socrates,  who  is  about  to  die,  come 
to  us  in  the  most  persuasive  guise.  But  they 
are  entangled  with  the  fanciful  tenets  of  pre- 
existence,  of  knowledge  as  a  reminiscence  from 
a  previous  state,  and  of  the  real  existence  of  ab- 
stract ideas.  They  are  based  on  the  erroneous 
conception  of  the  soul  as  an  entity  distinct  from 
the  body  and  imprisoned  in  it,  so  that,  in  the 
case  at  least  of  one  who  has  kept  his  soul 
pure  and  healthy  by  philosophy  and  asceticism, 
death  would  be  emancipation.  The  soul, 
Plato  thinks,  cannot  be  affected  by  diseases 
of  the  body,  but  only  by  its  own  diseases, 
ignorance  and  vice.  An  evidence  of  more 
weight  practically  than  any  of  the  metaphysi- 
cal arguments  adduced  by  the  disciple  of 
Socrates  is  the  death  of  Socrates  itself,  which, 
like  the  Christian  martyrdoms,  implies  a  strong 


3       :'l 


'!!'    i! 


If' 


h  II 


rf 


I  il' 


Wp' 


112 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


and  rooted  faith  in  the  future  reward  of 
loyalty  to  truth  and  virtue.  The  same  faith 
is  expressed  by  Plato  in  the  Republic.  To 
him  amid  the  license  of  Athenian  democracy 
in  its  hour  of  decay,  as  to  the  Christian  amid 
the  demoralization  of  the  Roman  Empire,  the 
world  seemed  evil ;  and  he  found  support  for 
righteousness  in  the  conviction  that  though 
the  righteous  man  may  suffer  obloquy,  perse- 
cution, and  even  a  painful  and  shameful  death 
in  this  life,  it  would  be  well  for  him  in  the 
final  result.  If  there  is  a  soul  of  the  uni- 
verse and  if  it  holds  communion  in  any  way 
with  the  soul  of  man,  such  a  belief  would 
seem  likely  to  be  no  mere  hallucination. 

In  Aristotle's  JSthies  there  is  no  trace  of  the 
doctrine,  either  in  its  specific  form  or  in  the 
form  of  faith  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  vir- 
tue which  it  assumes  in  Plato.  The  fact  is 
that  virtue,  in  jut  sense  of  the  word  and  as 
denoting  obedience  to  a  moral  law,  is  hardly 
a  term  of  Aristotle's  system.  His  virtue  is 
not  so  much  obedience  to  a  moral  law  as  the 
functional  activity  of  fally  developed  and 
perfectly  balanced  human 'ty,  such  as   is   pre- 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


113 


sented  with  a  rather  statuesque  dignity  in 
his  moral  character  of  the  high-minded  man 
(^fie<ya\6'\{rv)(p<i').  All  that  he  wants  is  a  life 
sufficiently  long  for  full  development  (^tb? 
reXeto?).  Of  compensation  or  retribution  he 
seems  to  have  no  idea. 

In  the  great  Stoics,  Epictetus  and  Marcus 
Aurelius,  there  is  no  expression  of  belief  in  a 
personal  life  beyond  the  present.  What  they 
seem  to  expect  is  absorption  in  the  universe, 
which,  if  personality  is  merged,  would  be  the 
extinction  of  our  personal  selvea.  O:  the 
other  hand,  they  show  the  profoundest  faith  in 
the  divinity  of  the  moral  law,  in  the  nothing- 
ness of  present  pleasures  or  pains,  and  in  the 
infinite  reward  of  virtue.  Their  asooticism 
—  that  of  Marcus  Aurelius  on  a  throne  — 
was  a  practical  demonstration  of  their  faith. 
In  Seneca  may  be  found  a  vague  intimation 
of  belief  that  death  is  a  transition  to  a 
higher  life ;  but  Seneca  is  a  rhetorician  rather 
than  a  philosopher. 

A  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  has 
been  a  part  of  most  of  the  religions,  yet  not 
of  all.      It   is   absent   from   the   sacred   books 


p 

V 


m 


!  I 
i! 


114 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


of  the  Hebrews,  strenuous  as  have  been  the 
efforts  to  import  it  into  them,  and  bold  as  is 
the  statement  of  the  Anglican  Articles  that 
both  in  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament 
everlasting  life  is  offered  to  mankind  through 
Christ.  An  exception  such  as  that  of  the 
Hebrews,  an  eminently  religious  nation,  is 
enough  to  bar  any  argument  from  universal 
consent,  even  if  universal  consent,  where  it 
can  be  explained  by  natural  desire,  were 
sufficient  to  prove  a  belief  innate.  The  other 
world  has  often  formed  the  lucrative  domain 
of  priests,  who  have  pretended  by  mystic  rites 
to  provide  the  dying  with  a  passport  to  ce- 
lestial bliss.  Egypt  seems  to  have  been  pre- 
eminent in  the  definiteness  of  her  creed  and 
the  minuteness  of  her  mortuary  ritual,  while 
she  was  also  strangely  preeminent  in  the  effort 
to  protract  the  existence  of  the  bodily  tene- 
ment, showing  thereby  apparently  an  ausence 
of  belief  in  the  separate  existence  of  the  soul. 
The  Persian  faith  in  a  future  life  appears  also 
to  havp  been  strong,  though  mixed  with  de- 
grading absurdities  which  make  it  philosophi- 
cally  worthless.      Buddhism   is   a  philosophy 


i  ! 


f--^ 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


115 


rather  than  a  religion,  while  upon  any  hypothe- 
sis as  to  the  meaning  of  Nirvana,  the  hope  of 
the  Buddhist  is  not  personal  immortality  but 
escape  from  personal  existence.  Be  Nirvana 
what  it  may,  it  is  a  fancy,  generated  in  part 
by  local  influences,  and  offers  nothing  in  the 
way  of  verification. 

"  The  evidences  of  a  future  life,  sir,  are 
sufficient,"  was  Boswell's  remark  to  Johnson. 
"  I  could  wish  for  more,  sir,"  was  Johnson's 
reply.  It  was  no  doubt  his  sense  of  the  in- 
sufficiency of  the  evidences,  considering  the 
vital  character  of  the  doctrine,  that  disposed 
Johnson  to  belief  in  ghosts,  and  made  him 
anxious  to  investigate  all  stories  of  the  kind, 
even  when  they  were  so  absurd  as  that  of  the 
ghost  of  Cock  Lane,  It  cannot  be  necessary  to 
discuss  such  fictions.  The  only  case,  so  far 
as  we  are  aware,  in  which  there  is  anything 
like  first-hand  evidence  is  that  of  the  warning 
apparition  to  Lord  Lyttelton,  which  may  be 
explained  as  the  masked  suicide  of  a  voluptuary 
sated  with  life.  Nor  can  Spiritualistic  appari- 
tions call  for  notice  here.  They  have  been 
enough  exposed.     Nothing  is  proved  by  them 


"  1 


116 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


W  «'a 


!(!   I 


but  the  fond  credulity  of  bereavement  pining 
for  communion  with  the  lost.  Spiritualism,  it 
should  not  be  forgotten,  had  its  farcical  origin 
in  table-turning.  Apart  from  the  miraculous 
resurrection  of  Christ,  and  Christ's  miraculous 
raisings  from  the  dead,  no  one  has  been  seen  or 
heard  from  after  death.  That  evidence  which 
alone  could  be  absolutely  conclusive  has  never 
been  afforded.  This  is  the  stubborn  fact  with 
which  Butler  and  those  who  adopt  his  line  of 
argument  have  to  contend. 

Positivism  hopes  that  it  has  indemnified,  or 
more  than  indemnified,  us  for  the  loss  of  per- 
sonal immortality  by  tendering  an  imper- 
sonal immortality  in  the  consequences  of  our 
lives  and  actions  prolonged  through  the  gen- 
erations which  come  after  us  to  the  end  of 
time.  But  this  immortality  is  not  only  imper- 
sonal, it  is  unconscious,  and,  therefore,  so  far 
as  our  sensations  are  concerned,  not  distin- 
guishable from  annihilation.  It  is  not  even 
specially  human;  we  share  it  with  every 
motor,  animate  or  inanimate  ;  with  the  horse 
which  draws  a  wagon,  with  the  water  which 
turns  a  mill,  with  the  food  which  passes  into 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


117 


the  muscles  of  the  consumer,  with  the  falling 
stone. 

Besides,  all  theories  which  pretend  to  con- 
sole man  for  his  mortality  by  making  him  a 
partaker  in  the  imm  rtality  of  his  race,  seem, 
as  was  said  before,  to  encounter  the  objection 
that  the  race  itself  is  not  immortal.  How  long 
the  planet  which  is  the  abode  of  man  will  last 
or  remain  fit  for  man's  habitation,  the  oracles 
of  science  may  not  be  agreed,  but  they  appear 
to  be  agreed  in  holding  that  the  end  must 
come.  If  they  are  right,  philosophy  does  but 
mock  us  when  she  bids  us  find  our  real  spirit- 
ual life  in  efforts  to  perfect  humanity,  and  our 
paradise  in  anticipation  of  the  state  of  bliss 
into  which  humanity,  when  perfected,  will  be 
brought.  At  a  certain,  however  remote,  date 
planetary  wreck  will  be  the  end.  Nor  has  the 
promise  of  perfection  by  evolution,  such  as 
another  school  of  thinkers  holds  out,  any  ad- 
vantage in  this  respect  over  the  promise  of 
perfection  by  effort.  Evolution,  like  effort, 
comes  at  last  to  naught.  That  death  is  the 
renewing  of  the  species,  and  apparently  indis- 
pensable to  progress,  might  be  a  satisfactory 


I  ! 


|i     < 


,f 


!r 


|l  ! 


118 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


reflection  if  the  species  were  everything  and 
the  individual  were  nothing.  But  the  indi- 
vidual is  something  in  his  ov/n  eyes.  Against 
any  scientific  theory  that  human  organisms  are 
simply  vehicles  for  the  transmission  of  life 
the  consciousness  of  each  organism  protests 
and  rebels.  It  is  conceivable  that  by  the 
progress  of  humanity,  before  the  end  of  our 
world,  some  glorious  consummation  may  be 
reached.  But  it  is  hardly  conceivable  that 
in  that  consummation  we  or  the  cave-dwellers 
can  have  a  share. 

Still  less  can  any  substitute  for  our  hope  of 
a  personal  immortality  be  found  in  demonstra- 
tions of  the  indefeasible  vitality  of  protoplasm. 
The  hope  which  we  resign  is  personal.  Proto- 
plastic vitality  is  not.  Life  more  or  less  active 
may,  as  these  comforters  tell  us,  pervade  all 
things;  and  in  that  sense  we  may  continue  to 
live  after  our  di, solution  and  absorption  into 
the  general  frame  of  nature.  But  what  is  the 
value  of  a  life  of  which  we  shall  not  be  indi- 
vidually conscious  ?  There  may  be  life  in  the 
fermentation  of  a  dunghill.  But  who  can 
imagine  himself  blest  in  the  prospect  of  shar- 
ing it  ? 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


119 


Of  death  and  of  the  perpetual  renewal  of  the 
race  the  necessity  is  obvious  so  far  as  the 
present  estate  of  man  is  concerned.  Upon 
the  succession  of  generations  man's  conjugal 
and  parental  character,  among  other  things, 
depends.  The  existence  of  an  undying  man 
would  be  that  of  one  of  Swift's  "  Struldbrugs  " 
infinitely  prolonged. 

There  are  those  who  think  to  console  them- 
selves for  the  shortness  of  life  and  its  final  ex- 
tinction at  death,  by  saying  that  its  very  short- 
ness makes  it  all  the  more  precious  while  it 
lasts,  and  that  a  pensive,  or,  to  use  their  phrase, 
an  idyllic  tenderness,  is  imparted  to  it  by  the 
prospect  of  its  extinction.  Such  an  argument 
seems  open  to  an  easy  reduction  to  absurdity, 
since  it  implies  that  ihe  more  brief  and  pre- 
carious the  possession  the  more  valuable  is  the 
thing  possessed.  A  great  deal  of  poetry,  no 
doubt,  has  its  source  in  our  mortality.  But 
such  poetry  is  not  an  expression  of  enjoyment 
or  gladness ;  it  is  a  melodious  sigh  in  which 
sadness  finds  relief. 

It  may  be  admitted  that  our  non-existence 
in    the    future    is    not   less    conceivable   than 


120 


ja  THERE  ANOTHER  UFKI 


l     i^i 


our  non-existence  in  the  past,  which  we 
take  as  certain,  notwithstanding  the  Socratic 
fancy  of  reminiscence.  But  we  now  exist, 
and  the  question  whether  we  continue  to 
exist  or  return  to  nothing  is  one  of  proba- 
bility and  evidence,  not  of  possible  con- 
ception. That  the  universe  might  do  without 
us  we  may  modestly  admit ;  whether  it  intends 
to  do  without  us  's  what  we  are  feebly 
endeavouring  to  divine. 

John  Stuart  Mill,  in  a  passage  of  his  essay 
on  Immortality^  highly  lauded  by  Fitzjames 
Stephen,  admits  the  possibility  of  conceiving 
that  thought  may  continue  to  exist  without  a 
material  brain,  the  relation  of  the  two  being  no 
metaphysical  necessity,  but  simply  a  constant 
coexistence  within  the  limits  of  observation. 
Even  if  we  suppose  thought  to  embrace  life, 
feelinT",  and  affection,  the  mere  admission  that 
its  dist-iibodied  existence  is  conceivable  would 
be  but  cold  comfort.  Mill  himself  seems  to 
fall  back  on  the  enjoyment  of  the  present  life 
exalted  by  the  religion  of  humanity  and  end- 
ing in  what  he  calls  "eternal  rest."  "If," 
he  says  in  his  essay  on  The  Utility  of  Religion^ 


M  ■  m 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


121 


"the  Religion  of  Iliimanity  were  as  sedulously 
cultivated  as  the  supernatural  religions  are, 
...  all  who  had  received  the  customary 
amount  of  moral  cultivation  would  up  to  the 
hour  of  death  live  ideally  in  the  life  of  those 
who  are  to  follow  them."  What  is  the  Re- 
ligion of  Humanity?  How  can  there  be  a 
religion  without  a  God?  How  can  we  wor- 
ship a  generalization  which  cannot  hear  prayer 
or  hymn,  which  is  not  even  complete,  since  the 
history  of  man  is  unfinished,  and  of  which,  to 
enhance  the  anomaly,  the  worshipper  himself 
is  a  part?  Is  the  religion  of  Humanity  any- 
thing more  than  a  fervid  philanthropy  which 
must  probably  be  confined  to  a  few  choice 
spirits  and,  so  far  as  it  involves  self-sacri- 
fice, is  not  likely  to  be  increased  by  the  con- 
viction that  the  philanthropist,  in  giving  up 
present  good,  gives  up  all?  What  again  is 
ideal  life  but  unreal  life?  What  is  unreal 
life  but  death?  To  Mill  it  appears  proba.U' 
that  after  a  length  of  time  different  in  dif- 
ferent persons  they  would  have  had  enough 
of  existence  and  would  gladly  lie  down  to 
take  their  eternal   rest.      Death  is  not  rest : 


122 


IS  THERE  Ali OTHER  LIFE? 


h .  .'.I 


I't 

I:;: 


' 

1! 

i   1 1,  111 

|g: 

1     1 

^^Hi: 

1 

fell'  ■- 

fej 

it  is  destruction.  When  we  lay  ourselves 
down  to  rest  it  is  with  the  prospect  of  wak- 
ing again  refreshed  and  invigorated  to  new 
life.  A  Greek  poet  spoke  to  the  heart  when 
he  tearfully  contrasted  the  lot  of  man  with 
that  of  the  flowers  of  the  field,  which  renew 
their  growth  at  the  return  of  spring,  while 
man  with  all  his  bravery  and  wisdom,  once 
laid  in  his  dark  and  narrow  bed,  sleeps  a  sleep 
which  knows  no  waking. 

Yet  it  is  not  the  extinction  of  bravery  and 
wisdom  that  most  moves  our  pity  for  ourselves. 
This  the  next  generation  may  repair.  The 
torch  of  science  is  handed  on,  and  the  discovery 
half  made  by  one  man  of  science  is  completed, 
when  he  is  gone,  by  a  successor.  It  is  the 
perpetual  slaughter  of  affection  that  touches  us 
most,  and  that,  we  should  think,  would  most 
touch  the  Power  in  whose  hands  we  are,  if  in 
its  nature  there  is  any  affinity  to  mortal  love. 
Affection  at  all  events,  without  the  survival  of 
the  personalities,  must  die  for  ever. 

The  mere  existence  of  a  desire  in  man  to 
prolong  his  being,  even  if  it  were  universal, 
can  afford  little  assurance  that  the  desire  will 


IS   THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


123 


i  J 

1'   ! 

T-f 

>      : 

■ 

be  fulfilled.  Of  desires  that  will  never  be 
fulfilled  man's  whole  estate  is  lamentably  full. 
If  to  each  of  us  his  own  little  being  is  inex- 
pressibly dear,  so  is  its  own  little  being  to  the 
insect,  which  nevertheless  is  crushed  without 
remorse  and  without  hope  of  a  future  existence. 
It  is  sad  that  man  should  perish,  and 
perish  just  when  he  has  reached  his  prime. 
This  seems  like  cruel  wastefulness  in  nature. 
But  is  not  nature  full  of  waste  ?  Butler  rather 
philosophically  finds  an  analogy  to  the  waste 
of  souls  in  the  waste  of  seeds.  He  might  have 
found  one  in  the  destruction  of  geological 
races,  in  the  redundancy  of  animal  life,  which 
involves  elimination  by  wholesale  slaughter,  in 
the  multitude  of  children  brought  into  the 
world  only  to  die.  The  deaths  of  children,  of 
which  a  large  number  appear  inevitable,  seem 
to  present  an  insurmountable  stumbling-block 
to  any  optimism  which  holds  that  nature  can 
never  be  guilty  of  waste,  even  in  regard  to  the 
highest  of  her  works.  Waste  there  evidently 
is  in  nature  both  animate  and  inanimate,  and 
to  an  enormous  extent  if  our  intelligence  tells 
us  true.     The  earth  is  full  of  waste  places  as 


124 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


Hi 


I  'h  i 


well  as  of  blind  agencies  of  destruction,  such 
as  earthquakes,  volcanic  fires,  and  floods,  while 
her  satellite  appears  to  be  nothing  but  waste. 

Can  we  rest  on  the  presumption  that  for  all 
suffering,  at  least  for  all  unmerited  suffering, 
here,  supreme  justice  must  have  provided  com- 
pensation hereafter?  Is  there  not  an  infinity 
of  suffering  among  animals  ?  Are  not  many  of 
them  by  the  very  constitution  of  nature  doomed 
as  the  prey  of  other  animals  to  suffer  agonies 
of  fear  and  at  last  a  painful  death  ?  Are  not 
others  fated  to  be  tortured  by  parasites  ?  Yet 
where  will  be  their  compensation  ?  Where  will 
be  the  compensation  of  the  hapless  dog  which 
writhes  beneath  the  knife  of  the  vivisector,  and 
which  not  only  is  innocent  but  is  an  involun- 
tary benefactor  of  humanity  ? 

That  a  survey  of  nature  drives  us  to  one  oi 
two  conclusions,  either  to  the  conclusion  that 
Benevolence  is  not  omnipotent  or  to  the  con- 
clusion that  Omnipotence  is  not,  in  our  accepta- 
tion of  the  term,  purely  benevolent,  has  been 
proved  with  a  superfluity  of  logic.  What  may 
be  behind  the  veil  we  cannot  tell.  But  in  that 
which  is  manifested  to  us  there  seems  to  be 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


125 


nothing  that  can  warrant  us  in  looking  for 
immortality  as  the  certain  gift  of  unlimited 
benevolence  invested  with  unlimited  power. 
What  lies  beyond  that  which  is  manifested 
to  us  is  the  region  not  of  demonstration  but 
of  hope. 

Yet  man  shrinks  from  annihilation.  If  he 
were  certified  of  it,  in  spite  of  all  that  science 
or  criticism  has  done  to  prepare  him  for  disen- 
chantment, and  notwithstanding  the  soothing 
talk  of  philosophers  about  "eternal  rest,"  his 
being  would  receive  a  great  shock.  A  fear- 
ful light  would  be  thrown  on  the  misery  and 
degradation  of  which  the  world  is  full,  has 
always  been  full,  and  is  likely  long  to  remain 
full.  A  fearful  light  would  be  thrown  on  all 
the  horrors  of  history.  The  sufferers  of  the 
past  at  all  events  derived  no  comfort  amidst 
famine,  plague,  massacre,  and  torture,  from 
these  theories  of  an  "ideal  life,"  of  a  "Reli- 
gion of  Humanity,"  and  of  a  "posthumous 
and  subjective  existence  in  the  progress  of 
the  species."  A  selfish  tyrant  like  Louis  XIV. 
would  on  this  supposition,  at  least  while  his 
fortune    lasted,    have    been    of    all    men    the 


126 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


1 


'm  .f 


8.J  S  ^' 


f 


1 


happiest,  while  the  victims  of  his  selfish  ambi- 
tion or  rapine,  slaughtered  in  his  profligate 
wars,  perishing  of  hunger  through  his  extrava- 
gance, or  worked  to  death  as  slaves  in  his 
galleys,  would  have  been  of  all  men  the  most 
miserable. 

Is  there  any  voice  in  our  nature  which  dis- 
tinctly tells  us  that  death  is  not  the  end  ?  If 
there  is,  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  we 
should  not  listen  to  it,  even  though  its  message 
may  be  incapable  of  verification  such  as  in 
regard  to  a  material  hypothesis  is  required  by 
physical  science.  That  the  intelligence  of  our 
five  senses,  of  which  science  is  the  systematized 
record,  is  exhaustive,  we  have,  as  was  before 
said,  no  apparent  ground  for  assuming;  the 
probability  seems  to  be  the  other  way ;  it 
seems  likely  that  our  senses,  mere  nerves  even 
if  completely  evolved,  are  imperfect  monitors, 
and  that  we  may  be  living  in  a  universe  of 
which  we  really  know  as  little  as  the  mole, 
which  no  doubt  seems  to  itself  to  perceive 
everything  that  is  perceptible,  knows  of  the 
world  of  sight.  Now,  there  does  seem  to  be 
a  voice  in  every  man  which,  if  he  will  listen  to 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


127 


dis- 


it,  tells  him  that  his  account  is  not  closed  at 
death.  The  good  man,  however  unfortunate 
he  may  have  been,  and  even  though  he  may 
not  have  found  integrity  profitable,  feels  at  the 
end  of  life  a  satisfaction  in  his  past  and  an 
assurance  that  in  the  sum  of  things  he  will  find 
that  he  has  chosen  aright.  The  most  obdu- 
rately wicked  man,  however  his  wickedness  may 
have  prospered,  will  probably  wish  when  he 
comes  to  die  that  he  h^.l  lived  the  life  of  the 
righteous.  It  may  be  possible  to  explain  the 
sanctions  or  warnings  of  conscience  generally 
as  the  influence  of  human  opinion  reflected  in 
the  individual  mind,  transmitted  perhaps  by 
inheritance  and  accumulated  in  transmission. 
But  such  an  explanation  will  hardly  cover  the 
case  of  death-bed  self -approbation  or  remorse. 
There  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  we  should 
not  trust  the  normal  indications  of  our  moral 
nature  as  well  as  the  normal  indications  of  our 
bodily  sense ;  and  against  the  belief  that  the 
greatest  benefactors  and  the  greatest  enemies 
of  mankind  rot  at  last  undistinguished  in  the 
same  grave  our  moral  nature  veheraently 
rebels. 


;i 


128 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


This  at  all  events  is  certain  :  if  death  is 
to  end  all  alike  for  the  righteous  and  for  the 
unrighteous,  for  thobe  *vho  have  been  blessings 
and  for  those  who  have  been  curses  to  their 
kind,  the  Power  which  rules  the  universe  can- 
not be  just  in  any  sense  of  the  word  which 
we  can  understand. 

Is  there  anything  which  appears  to  transcend 
the  conditions  of  man's  present  existence,  to 
be  likely  to  survive  and  be  carried  over  to  a 
larger  sphere  of  being  ?  This  seems  to  be  the 
practical  question  if  the  subject  is  to  be  re- 
garded from  the  strictly  rational  point  of  view. 
Character  is  no  doubt  formed  by  action  on  a 
basis  of  natural  tendency,  under  the  moulding 
environment  of  circumstance  ;  nor  can  it  be 
affirmed  that  there  is  anything  in  moral  action 
not  dictated  by  the  present  requirements  of 
our  state  as  domestic  and  social  beings,  having 
relations  with  others,  as  well  as  being  under 
the  necessity  of  caring  for  ourselves.  Yet, 
while  formed  and  manifested  by  acting  in 
conformity  with  the  rules  of  our  present  life, 
character  seems  when  formed  to  have  a  value 
and  a  beauty  of  its  own,  apart  from  its  use- 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


129 


fulness  in  current  action ;  so  that  we  can 
contemplate  it,  mark  its  improvement  or  dete- 
rioration in  ourselves,  and  make  its  improve- 
ment the  object  of  distinct  and  conscious 
effort.  What  we  call  spiritual  liie  seems  in 
fact  to  be  the  cultivation  of  character  carried 
on  under  religious  influence  by  a  sort  of  inner 
self.  It  is  conceivable  that  good  and  beauti- 
ful character  may  be  prized  by  tlie  Soul  of 
the  Universe,  if  the  universe  has  a  soul,  as 
capable  of  union  with  itself,  and  that  it  may 
thus  transcend  the  limits  of  our  being  here. 
If  this  is  but  a  hint,  on  a  question  at  once  so 
dark  and  of  such  overwhelming  importance, 
we  may  gladly  welcome  the  faintest  gleam 
of  light. 

At  the  same  time,  so  far  as  we  can  discern, 
character  can  be  formed  only  by  effort,  which 
implies  something  against  which  to  strive; 
so  that  without  evil,  or  what  appears  to  us 
evil,  character  could  not  bo  formed.  The  ex- 
istence of  evil  in  fact,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  is 
the  necessary  condition  of  active  life.  For 
aught  we  know,  effort,  or  something  which  we 
can  only  describe  as  effort,  not  fiat  or  mere 


i  :\i 


■ii 


r 


130 


BH 


•I 


I'  'affi 


Ltf 


U.     J 


|iM 


I 


?.    . 


/«   W^^^  .iiVOmi^y?  i,/^.^; 


"f  «.e  oonaitiona.  kind,  le/Id  7'"  "^ 

•I-tinies,   Whatever    the,    I;  T  ^   "" 
scousness   and   affection   are   let  "" 

faring,   ''"•I   unMfilled   dll   atT'  "'• 
will  be  no  more.  *"   ^^^"'^ 

'■^i^inTr:::  ? ''''  °^  ~  »-- 

f^n,  rev  la«  n  He  T  "'  ^'"^  ''P"' 
"o-O,  believe.";hat  He  t'^T-  ^'^  '^'■ 
f-  -  the  Gospel,  and  a  pled'H;  ""'^■ 
-'t.  in  union  with  Chri^^ei^i  ~- 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


131 


need  of  furthv^r  assurance  otherwise  than  in 
the  way  of  corroboration.  He  discusses  the 
natural  evidences,  like  Butler,  with  revelation 
in  reserve. 

There  are  those  who  think  they  display 
their  good  sense  in  bidding  us  give  up  theue 
speculations,  which,  they  tell  us,  are  beyond 
the  range  of  our  understandings,  and  culti- 
vate our  pleasure  and  happiness  in  the  present 
world.  One  element  of  our  pleasure  and 
happiness  is  the  gratification  of  curiosity  on 
the  highest  subjects.  Our  curiosity  has  been 
or  is  being  gratified  as  to  the  origin  of  our 
species,  and  surely  the  destiny  of  our  species 
is  a  question  not  less  interesting  even  to  sci- 
ence, while  it  is  inevitably  set  on  foot  by  the 
other.  However,  pleasure  and  happiness  are 
different  things.  Pleasure  may  be  felt  by  the 
condemned  convict  in  eating  his  last  meal. 
But  happiness  seems  to  imply  the  sense  of 
security  and  permanence.  It  can  hardly  be 
predicated  of  a  being  whose  life  is  never  safe 
and  at  most  endures  but  for  an  hour. 

The  estate  of  man  upon  this  earth  of 
ours  may  in  course  of  time  be  vastly  improved. 


i 


\i 


132 


IS  THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


So  much  seems  to  be  promised  by  the  recent 
achievements  of  science,  whose  advance  is  in 
geometrical  progression,  each  discovery  giv- 
ing birth  to  several  more.  Increase  of  health 
and  extension  of  life  by  sanitary,  dietetic,  and 
gymnastic  improvement ;  increase  of  wealth 
by  invention,  and  of  leisure  by  the  substitu- 
tion of  machinery  for  labour ;  more  equal  dis- 
tribution of  wealth,  with  its  comforts  and 
refinements;  diffusion  of  knowledge;  political 
improvement;  elevation  of  the  domestic  affec- 
tions and  social  sentiments ;  unification  of 
mankind,  and  elimination  of  war  through 
ascendency  of  reason  over  passion,  —  all  these 
things  may  be  carried  to  an  indefinite  extent, 
and  may  produce  what  in  comparison  with  the 
present  estate  of  man  would  be  a  terrestrial 
paradise.  Selection  and  the  merciless  struggle 
for  existence  may  be  in  some  measure  super- 
seded by  selection  ot  a  more  scientific  and 
merciful  kind.  Death  may  be  deprived  at 
all  events  of  its  pangs.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  horizon  does  not  appear  to  be  clear 
of  cloud.  The  pressure  of  population  is 
a  danger  which  the    anti-Malthusian  can  no 


IS   THERE  ANOTHER  LIFE? 


133 


longer  set  at  naught,  and  to  check  which  it 
is  certain  that  Providence  will  not  interpose. 
The  tendency  of  the  factory  with  its  increas- 
ing division  of  labour  has  not  hitherto  been 
to  make  industrial  life  less  monotonous  or 
more  cheerful.  Frost,  heat,  storm,  drought, 
and  earthquake,  human  progress  can  hardly 
abate.  Art  and  poetry  do  not  seem  likely  to 
advance  with  the  ascendency  of  severe  science. 
There  is  some  truth  in  the  saying  of  the  poet 
that  a  glory  has  passed  away  from  the  earth. 
However,  let  our  fancy  suppose  the  most 
chimerical  of  Utopias  realized  in  a  com- 
monwealth of  man.  Mortal  life  prolonged  to 
any  conceivable  extent  is  but  a  span.  Still 
over  every  festal  board  in  the  community  of 
terrestrial  bliss  will  be  cast  the  shadow  of 
approaching  death;  and  the  sweeter  life  be- 
comes, the  more  bitter  death  will  be.  The 
more  bitter  it  will  be  at  least  to  the  ordinary 
man,  and  the  number  of  philosophers  like 
John  Stuart  Mill  is  small. 


m; 


THE   MIRACULOUS   ELEMENT  IN 
CHRISTIANITY 


v!l 


1l 


THE  MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN 
CHRISTIANITY 

The  effect  produced  by  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  and  his  disciples  is,  beyond  question, 
the  most  momentous  fact  in  history.  If  cir-  / 
cumstances,  such  as  the  fusion  of  races  under 
the  Roman  Empire  and  the  distress  attend- 
ant on  the  decline  of  the  Empire  concurred, 
Christianity  was  the  motive  power.  The  con- 
version of  Saul  marks  the  greatness  of  the 
moral  change.  It  is  the  proclamation  of  a  | 
new  ideal  of  human  brotherhood  and  purity  \ 
of  life.  Here,  if  at  any  point  in  history,  we 
may  believe  that  the  Spirit  of  the  World,  if 
the  world  has  a  spirit,  was  at  work.  If  evil 
to  a  terrible  extent  as  well  as  good  has  appar- 
ently flowed  from  the  Gospel;  if  Christianity 
has  given  birth  to  priestcraft,  intolerance, 
persecution,  and  religious  war,  as  well  as  to 

18T 


!^ti 


!    41 


II  :  .• :  i  ' 


W-  •..' 


138     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

some  perversions  of  morality,  it  is  because 
the  miraculous  elements,  and  the  circle  of 
ecclesiastical  dogma  which  under  the  theo- 
sophic  influences  of  the  succeeding  age  formed 
itseh  around  them,  have  been  allowed  to 
overlay  and  obscure  the  character  and  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

The  author  of  Supernatural  Religion^  after 
demolishing,  as  he  conceives,  the  authority  of 
the  ecclesiastical  canon,  himself  says  of  the 
ethical  system  of  Chiistianity:  — 

"It  must  be  admitted  that  Christian  ethics 
were  not  in  their  details  either  new  or  origi- 
nal. The  precepts  which  distinguish  the 
system  may  be  found  separately  in  early 
religions,  in  ancient  philosophies,  and  in  the 
utterances  of  the  great  poets  and  seers  of 
Israel.  The  teaching  of  Jesus,  however,  car- 
ried morality  to  the  sublimest  point  attained 
or  even  attainable  by  humanity.  The  influence 
of  his  spiritual  religion  has  been  rendered 
doubly  great  by  the  unparalleled  purity  and 
elevation  of  his  own  character.  Surpassing 
in  his  sublime  simplicity  and  earnestness  the 
moral  grandeur  of  ^^i^^^y^'^-iwoiuii*  ^^^  putting 


.' 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     139 

to  the  blush  the  sometimes  sullied,  though 
generally  admirable,  teaching  of  Socrates  and 
Plato,  and  the  whole  round  of  Greek  philoso- 
phers, he  presented  the  rare  spectacle  of  a 
life,  so  far  as  we  can  estimate  it,  uniformly 
noble  and  consistent  with  his  own  lofty  prin- 
ciples, so  that  the  'imitation  of  Christ '  has 
become  almost  the  final  word  in  the  preach- 
ing of  his  religion,  and  must  continue  to  be 
one  of  the  most  powerful  elements  of  its 
permanence.  His  system  might  not  be  new, 
but  it  was  in  a  high  sense  the  perfect  devel- 
opment of  natural  morality,  and  it  was  final 
in  this  respect  amongst  others,  that,  super- 
seding codes  of  law  and  elaborate  rules  of 
life,  it  confined  itself  to  two  fundamental 
principles:  love  to  God  and  love  to  man. 
Whilst  all  previous  systems  had  merely  sought 
to  purify  the  stream,  it  demanded  the  purifi- 
cation of  the  fountain.  It  placed  the  evil 
thought  on  a  par  with  the  evil  action.  Such 
morality,  based  upon  the  intelligent  and  ear- 
nest acceptance  of  divine  law,  and  perfeci; 
recognition  of  the  brotherhood  of  man,  is  the 
highest  conceivable  by  humanity,  and  although 


140     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 


1/1  ■;■.•( 

W-f' 


its  power  and  influence  must  augment  with 
the  increase  of  enlightenment,  it  is  itself  be- 
yond development,  consisting  as  it  does  of 
principles  unlimited  in  their  range  and  in- 
exhaustible in  their  application.  Its  perfect 
realization  is  that  true  spiritual  Nirv^wa  which 
^hRkya-mouni  has  clearly  conceived,  and  ob- 
scured with  Oriental  mysticism:  extinction 
of  rebellious  personal  opposition  to  divine 
order,  and  the  attainment  of  perfect  harmony 
with  the  will  of  God."i 

Of  the  four  religions  which  have  been  styled 
universal,  Christianity  alone  is  universal  in 
fact.  Christianity  alone  preaches  its  Gospel 
to  the  whole  world.  A  Buddhist  element  has 
recently  found  its  way  into  a  certain  school 
of  European  philosophy,  but  not  through  Bud- 
dhist preaching  or  under  a  Buddhist  form. 
Mahometanism  and  Buddhism  are  something 
more  than  local  or  tribal,  yet  less  than  uni- 
versal. Mahometanism  is  military,  as  its 
Koran  avows.  In  conquest  it  lives,  with  con- 
quest it  decays;  it  also  practically  belongs 
to  the  despotic,  jiolygamic,  and  slave-owning 

1  Vol.  II.,  pp.  487-8. 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     141 


J 


East.  It  has  never  been  the  religion  of  a 
Western  race,  or  of  a  free  and  industrial  com- 
munity. By  arms  it  has  been  propagated,  or 
by  local  influence  and  contagion,  not  by  mis- 
sions. Buddhism,  if  it  is  really  a  religion 
and  not  rather  a  quietist  philosophy  engen- 
dered of  languor  and  suffering,  is  partly 
a  religion  of  climate  and  of  race;  of  its 
boasted  myriads  the  majority,  the  Chinese, 
retain  little  more  than  a  tincture  of  Buddha, 
while  all  are  enclosed  within  a  ring-fence  in 
a  particular  quarter  of  the  globe.  Its  Euro- 
pean offspring  is  a  philosophy  of  despair. 
Judaism,  after  its  rejection  of  Christianity, 
itself  fell  back  into  a  tribalism,  which  is  of 
all  tribalisms  morally  the  most  anti-social, 
since  it  is  not  primitive  and  natural  but  self- 
enforced  and  artificially  maintained  in  the  face 
of  humanity ;  while  the  proselytism  which  was 
rife  when  the  philosophic  Judaism  of  Philo  was 
verging  on  universality  has  since  that  epoch 
ceased.  It  is  to  be  noted  also  that  Christianity 
is  almost  alone  in  its  display  of  recuperative 
power.  No  parallel  to  the  revivals  of  Wycliff, 
Luther,  Calvin,  and  Wesley  is  presented  by  any 


142      MIRACULOUS  ELEMEXT  m  CHRISTIANITY 


other  religion.  The  Wahabi  movement  will 
hardly  be  thought  as  a  spiritual  revival  to 
deserve  that  rank. 

Moral  civilization  and  sustained  progress 
have  been  thus  far  limited  to  Christendom. 
So  have  distinct  and  effective  ideas  of  human 
brotherhood,  which  implies  a  common  pater- 
nity, and  of  the  service  of  humanity.  In  Bud- 
dhism, if  they  have  been  distinct,  they  cannot 
be  said  to  have  been  equally  effective.  They 
seem  to  be  closely  connected  with  the  Christian 
idea  of  the  Church,  with  its  struggle  for  the 
emancipation  of  the  world  from  the  powers 
of  evil  and  with  its  hope  of  final  victory. 

Much,  therefore,  of  what  we  liave  cherished 
would  still  stand  even  if  our  evidence  for  the 
miracles  should  fall. 

We  need  hardly  expend  thought  on  the 
discussion  as  to  the  possibility  of  believing 
in  miracles.  The  very  term  supposes  the 
existence  of  a  power  above  nature,  able  to 
reveal  itself  by  a  suspension  of  nature's  ordi- 
nary course  and  willing  so  to  reveal  itself  for 
the  salvation  of  mankind.  There  is  nothing 
apparently  repugnant  to  reason  in  such  a  sup- 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     143 


position.  The  existence  of  the  power  is  even 
implied  in  the  phrase  "  laws  of  nature "  con- 
stantly used  by  science;  for  wherever  there 
is  a  law  there  must  be  a  law-giver,  and  the 
law-giver  must  be  presumed  capable  of  sus- 
pending the  operation  of  law.  This  Hume 
himself  would  hardly  have  denied.  In  fact, 
the  metaphysical  argument  against  mira- 
cles comes,  as  has  been  said  before,  pretty 
much  to  this,  that  a  miracle  cannot  take 
placs,  because  if  it  did  it  would  be  a  miracle. 
We  could  not  help  believing  our  own  senses 
if  we  actually  saw  a  man  raised  from  the 
dead.  There  is  no  reason  why  we  should  not 
believe  the  testimony  of  other  people,  pro- 
vided that  they  were  eye-witnesses,  that  they 
were  competent  in  character  and  in  intelli- 
gence, and  that  their  testimony  had  been 
submitted  to  impartial  and  thorough  investi- 
gation. Suppose  a  hundred  men  of  known 
character,  judgment,  and  scientific  attain- 
ments were  to  unite  in  declaring  that  they 
had  seen  a  blind  man  restored  to  sight  or  a 
man  raised  from  the  dead  in  circumstances 
precluding  the  possibility  of  fraud  or  illusion. 


144     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CE  ilSTlANITY 


'\.   i§ 


I! 


4 


should  we,  as  Hume  says,  at  once  reject  their 
testimony  ?  On  what  ground  ?  On  the  ground 
of  universal  experience?  Experience,  being 
only  previous  uniformity,  is  broken  by  a  well- 
attested  exception.  We  assume  an  adequate 
object,  such  as  the  revelation  to  man  of  vital 
truth  undiscoverable  by  his  own  intellect 
would  be.  It  is  simply  a  question  of  evi- 
dence. All  will  allow  that  we  require  either 
the  evidence  of  our  own  senses  or  an  extraor- 
dinary amount  of  unexceptionable  testimony 
to  warrant  us  in  accepting  a  miracle. 

That  the  Supreme  Being,  supposing  that 
he  intended  to  reveal  himself  by  miracle  for 
the  salvation  of  mankind,  and  required  belief 
in  the  miracle  as  the  condition  of  our  salva- 
tion, would  provide  us  with  conclusive  evi- 
dence, may  surely  be  assumed.  A  miracle  is 
an  appeal  to  our  reason  through  our  senses, 
and  to  make  it  valid  either  the  evidence  of 
our  own  senses,  or  evidence  equivalent  to 
that  of  our  own  senses,  is  required.  To  call 
upon  us  to  believe  without  sufficient  evidence 
would  be  to  put  an  end  to  belief  itself  in 
any  rational  sense  of  the  term.     Theologians 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     145 


always  take  advantage  of  proof  so  far  as  it 
16  forthcoming.  Faith,  to  which  they  have 
appealed  in  defect  of  proof,  is  a  belief,  not 
in  things  unproved,  but  in  things  unseen. 
Miracles  may  be  accepted  on  the  evidence  of 
a  church  assumed  to  be  itself  divine;  they 
may  even  be  accepted  on  the  supposed  evi- 
dence of  a  spiritual  sense  illuminated  by 
divine  influence;  but  if  we  are  to  accept 
them  on  the  evidence  of  reason,  there  must 
be  satisfactory  eye-witnesses.  What  ocular 
testimony  do  we  possess? 

In  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  the  first  Epistle 
to  the  Corinthians  St.  Paul  says  that  the 
risen  Christ  had  appeared  to  him.  He  says 
simply  appeared  (Jo^Orj).  He  gives  no  par- 
ticulars nor  anything  which  can  enable  us  to 
judge  whether  the  apparition  was  certainly 
real,  or  whether  it  may  have  been  the  product 
of  ecstatic  imagination,  like  the  apparition 
seen  by  Colonel  Gardiner  or  those  which  made 
Coleridge  say  that  he  did  not  believe  in 
ghosts  because  he  had  seen  too  many  of  them. 
Three  detailed  accounts  of  the  vision  are 
given  in  the   Acts,  but  not  one  of  them  can 


146     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 


be  traced  to  St.  Paul,  though  two  of  them 
are  put  into  his  mouth;  and  they  are  at  vari- 
ance with  each  other,  one  (Acts  ix.  7)  say- 
ing that  St.  Paul's  fellow-travellers  heard 
the  voice  but  saw  no  man;  another  (Acts 
xxii.  9)  saying  that  they  saw  the  light  but 
did  not  hear  the  voice;  while  the  utterances 
of  the  voice  itself  differ  widely  in  the  three 
passages  (compare  Acts  ix.  4-7,  with  Acts 
xxii.  7,  8,  and  more  especially  with  Acts 
xxvi.  14-19),  though  it  would  seem  that  the 
words  ought  to  have  made  an  indelible  im- 
pression; not  to  mention  that  "it  is  hard  for 
thee  to  kick  against  the  goad"  is  a  strange 
phrase  to  be  used  by  a  voice  from  heaven. 

In  the  same  passage  of  the  first  Epistle  to 
the  Corinthians  St.  Paul  states  "that  Christ 
died  for  our  sins  according  to  the  Scriptures; 
that  he  was  buried;  that  he  had  been  raised 
on  the  third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures; 
that  he  had  appeared  unto  Cephas,  then  to  the 
twelve;  that  he  had  afterwards  appeared  to 
about  five  hundred  brethren  at  once,  of  whom 
the  greater  part  remained  till  that  time,  but 
some  were  fallea  asleep;  then  to  James;  then 


tiiii 


li  I 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  (CHRISTIANITY     I  17 


to  all  the  apostles."  It  ia  natural  to  assume 
that  St.  Paul  learned  this  from  Peter  and 
James,  the  two  apostles  whom  he  saw  on  his 
first  visit  to  Jerusalem  after  his  conversion. 
But  he  does  not  cite  their  authority,  much 
less  does  he  say  that  he  had  taken  any  meas- 
ures to  sift  their  evidence.  Nor  is  it  likely 
that  he  would  have  taken  such  measures, 
being,  as  he  was,  an  ardent  proselyte  of 
three  years'  standing,  and  having  staked  his 
spiritual  life  on  the  resurrection  of  Christ. 
Here  again  he  uses  the  expression  "  appeared  " 
(&<f>0r}y  and  leaves  us  once  more  to  speculate 
on  the  effect  of  enthusiasm  in  giving  birth  to 
visions  and  on  the  contagion  of  excited  im- 
agination. He  says  nothing  about  the  inter- 
course of  the  risen  Christ  with  his  Apostles 
during  the  days  preceding  the  Ascension.  Nor 
does  it  seem  easy  to  harmonize  his  story  with 
that  of  the  Gospels. 

Some  attestations  of  miracles  given  in  the 
Acts  are  in  the  first  person,  implying  that 
an  eye-witness  is  speaking.  The  eye-wit- 
ness, however,  is  anonymous,  and  we  have 
no  means  of  testing  his  trustworthiness.    The 


148     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 


[.?  \ 


J:!. 


;i;'  ' 


escape  of  St.  Paul  at  Melita  from  the  ating 
of  the  viper  which  had  come  out  of  the 
burning  Hticks  and  fastened  on  his  hand, 
and  his  prophetic  reliance  upon  God  in  the 
shipwreck,  while  they  are  vividly  attested, 
can  hardly  be   called  miraculous. 

In  1  Corinthians  xii.  4-11,  St.  Paul  refers 
in  a  general  way  to  the  existence  of  miracu- 
lous gifts  among  members  of  the  Church : 
"Now  there  are  diversities  of  gifts,  but 
the  same  Spirit.  And  there  are  diversities 
of  ministrations,  and  the  same  Lord.  And 
there  are  diversities  of  workings,  but  the 
same  God,  who  worketh  all  things  in  all. 
But  to  each  one  is  given  the  manifestation 
of  the  Spirit  to  profit  withal.  For  to  one  is 
given  through  the  Spirit  the  word  of  wis- 
dom; and  to  another  the  word  of  knowledge, 
according  to  the  same  Spirit:  to  another 
faith,  in  the  same  Spirit;  and  to  another 
gifts  of  healings,  in  the  one  Spirit;  and  to 
another  workings  of  miracles;  and  to  another 
prophecy;  and  to  another  discernings  of 
spirits:  to  another  divers  kinds  of  tongues; 
and  to  another  the  interpretation  of  tongues: 


i 

fU 

I 
5 

t4'      1 

MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     149 


but  all  these  worketh  the  one  and  the  same 
Spirit,  dividing  to  each  one  severally  even  as 
he  will."  Gifts  of  divers  kinds  of  tongues 
and  of  the  interpretation  of  tongues,  it  will 
be  observed,  are  put  on  a  level  with  the  rest, 
though  St.  Paul  himself  (1  Corinthians  xiv.) 
treats  those  gifts  as  equivocal,  and  we  know 
from  modern  experience  that  they  may  be  the 
offspring  of  self-delusion;  while  the  account 
of  the  gift  of  tongues  in  Acts  ii.  8,  as  that 
of  speaking  divers  known  languages,  is  at 
variance  with  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  who 
describes  it  as  that  of  speaking  in  a  tongue 
unknown  to  all.  St.  Paul  does  not  testify  to 
the  occurrence  of  any  specific  miracle  other 
than  his  own  vision,  nor  does  he  profess  to 
have  performed  a  specific  miracle  himself. 
His  general  appeal  is  not  to  miracles  but  to 
the  divine  character  and  merits  of  Christ. 

In  the  first  Epistle  of  St.  Peter  there  are 
allusions  (i.  3  and  iii.  18)  to  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Christ.  But  they  are  connected  with 
an  allusion  to  his  preaching  "unto  the  spirits 
in  prison,  which  aforetime  were  disobedient, 
when    the    longsuffering   of    God    waited    in 


5jf.       Si 


i 


150     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 


■3'   1 


V.    s: 


the  days  of  Noah  while  the  ark  was  a  pre- 
paring"; a  tradition  which  implies  belief  in 
the  Noachic  legend,  while  its  character  seems 
to  militate  against  the  authenticity  of  the 
Epistle  as  the  work  of  a  companion  of 
Christ,  since  actual  contact  with  reality 
usually  sets  bounds  to  imagination.  In  the 
second  Epistle  of  St.  Peter  there  is  an  allu- 
sion to  the  Transfiguration.  But  the  authen- 
ticity of  the  second  Epistle  of  St.  Peter  is 
strongly  impugned  and  feebly  defended. 

The  testimony  comprised  in  the  above  pas- 
sages is,  apparently,  the  sum-total  of  the 
ocular  evidence  producible  for  the  miracu- 
lous part  of  Christianity.  Besides  this  there 
is  nothing  but  tradition  of  unknown  origin 
recorded  by  unknown  writers  at  a  date 
uncertain  and,  for  aught  that  we  can  tell, 
many  years  after  the  events.  The  four 
Gospels  are  anonymous.  Two  of  them,  the 
second  iind  third,  are  not  even  ascribed  to 
eye-witnesses,  while  the  preface  to  the  third 
distinctly  implies  that  it  is  not  the  work  of 
an  eye-witness,  but  of  one  of  a  number  of 
compilers.     The  first  Gospel,  if  Matthew  were 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  ClIItlHTIANITY     151 


really  its  author,  would  be  the  work  of  an 
eye-witness.  But  it  seems  to  be  certainly 
attested  that  if  Matthew  wrote  a  Gospel  at 
all  it  was  in  Hebrew,  whereas  the  first  Gos- 
pel is  in  Greek  and  is  pronounced  to  be  not 
even  a  translation  from  the  Hebrew.  In  the 
fourth  Gospel  there  is  an  attestation;  but  it 
is  anonymous  and  suspicious,  serving  rather 
to  shake  than  to  confirm  our  belief  in  apos- 
tolic authorship;  for  why  should  not  the 
writer  himself  have  given  his  name  instead 
of  leaving  the  authenticity  go  be  attested  by 
an  unknown  hand?  Of  the  proof  tendered  for 
the  authenticity  of  this  Gospel  as  the  work 
of  St.  John,  it  may  safely  be  said  that  it  is 
not  such  as  would  be  accepted  in  the  case  of 
any  ordinary  work.  Of  the  most  recent 
experts  there  is  a  decided  and  apparently 
growing  majority  on  the  other  side.  The 
Apocalypse  as  well  as  the  Gospel  was 
ascribed  by  the  Church  to  St.  John,  and  as 
the  difference  of  character  and  style  is  such 
that  the  two  cannot  have  been  by  the  same 
hand,  whatever  makes  for  the  authenticity 
of  the  Apocalypse  makes  against  the  authen- 


tiir;. 


162     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

ticity  of  the  Gospel.  Nothing  can  seem  more 
unlikely  than  that  a  Gospel  tinctured  with 
Alexandrian  theosophy  t:uould  be  the  work  of 
a  simple  fisherman  of  Galilee.  Nor  is  there 
any  similarity  between  the  character  of  John 
depicted  in  the  first  three  Gospels  and  that 
with  which  the  fourth  Gospel  is  suffused.  The 
writer's  attitude  of  aversion  towards  the  Jews 
and  his  references  to  their  laws  and  customs  as 
those  of  another  nation  are  scarcely  compatible 
with  the  supposition  that  he  was  himself  a  Jew. 
Not  one  of  the  four  Gospels  can  be  shown 
with  any  certainty  to  have  existed  in  its 
present  form  till  a  period  had  elapsed  after 
the  events  fully  sufficient,  in  a  totally  un- 
critical age,  for  the  growth  of  any  amount  of 
miraculous  legend,  as  the  biographies  of 
numerous  saints  in  the  Middle  Ages  prove. 
This  much  at  the  very  least  seems  to  have 
been  established  by  the  author  of  Super- 
natural Religion^  whose  main  argument,  as 
Matthew  Arnold  says,  is  not  to  be  shaken 
by  pursuing  him  into  minor  issues  and  dis- 
crediting him  there.  It  is  alleged  that  the 
Gospels   must  have   been   written   before   the 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY    153 


destruction  of  Jerusalem,  because  they  do  not 
refer  to  that  catastrophe  but  seem  to  speak 
of  the  "altar"  as  if  it  were  still  existing. 
The  answer  appeals  to  be  that  if  the  tradi- 
tions worked  up  by  the  Evangelists  were 
anterior  to  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  there  is  no 
reason  why  that  event  should  be  imported 
into  them.  Legends  do  not  ordinarily  men- 
tion intervening  events.  Besides,  there  does 
appear  in  Matthew  xxiv.  and  Mark  xiii.  to 
be  an  allusion  to  the  flight  of  the  Christians 
in  the  day  of  conflict. 

In  the  narratives  of  the  first  three  Evan- 
gelists, there  is  found  a  large  common  ele- 
ment. It  appears  that  if  the  whole  text  of 
the  Synoptics  is  broken  up  into  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-four  sections,  fifty-eight  of 
these  are  common  to  all  three;  twenty-six 
besides  to  Matthew  and  Mark;  seventeen  to 
Mark  and  Luke;  thirty-two  to  Matthew  and 
Luke;  leaving  only  forty-one  unshared  ele- 
ments, of  which  thirty-one  are  found  in 
Luke,  seven  in  Matthew,  and  three  in  Mark.^ 


1  Martineau,  Seat  of  Authority  in  Religion,  p.  184.    See 
also  the  loUowiiig  pages. 


'- 1 

(•  •  .  ■  , 

-1 

p)^v.  i 

!  'M 

i   4| 

r 


154     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

This  similarity  in  the  selection  of  a  limited 
portion  of  the  Life,  combined  with  the  actual 
identity  of  language  in  so  many  passages,  has 
been  justly  thought  to  preclude  the  hypothesis 
of  independent  authorship  and  to  suggest  com- 
pilation on  a  common  basis.  There  must  on 
that  supposition  have  been  an  interval  of  time 
between  the  events  and  the  compilation  during 
which  the  common  basis  was  formed. 

It  is  surely  incredible  that  divine  Provi- 
dence, intending  to  consign  facts  on  the 
knowledge  of  which  the  salvation  of  man 
depended  to  particular  writings,  should  not 
have  placed  the  authorship  and  date  of  those 
writings  beyond  a  doubt. 

Not  one  of  the  four  Evangelists  claims 
inspiration.  The  author  of  the  third  Gospel 
seems  distinctly  to  renounce  it,  putting  his 
narrative  on  a  level  with  a  number  of  others, 
over  which  he  asserts  his  superiority,  if  at 
all,  only  in  carefulness  of  investigation.  The 
Church,  however,  has  treated  all  four  Gospels 
as  equally  inspired.  Papias  on  the  other  hand, 
in  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  seems  to 
recognize  no  Gospel  as  inspired,  holding  that 


m  I 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     155 


nothing  derived  from  books  was  so  profitable 
as  the  living  voice  of  tradition. 

There  would  be  a  natural  and  almost  over- 
whelming temptation  to  ascribe  an  anony- 
mous and  popular  history  of  Christ  to  one  of 
the  apostles;  and  this  would  be  done  in  an 
uncritical  age  without  any  thought  of  fraud. 
It  is  true  that  we  accept  without  question 
the  works  of  Tacitus  and  other  ancient  his- 
torians, though  anonymous,  as  those  of  their 
reputed  authors.  But  in  these  cases  there 
was  no  temptation  to  false  ascription,  nor 
does  it  greatly  signify  who  wrote  the  his- 
tory, the  facts  neither  requiring  an  extraor- 
dinary amount  of  evidence,  nor  being  vital  to 
the  salvation  of  mankind. 

Of  some  of  the  miraculous  parts  of  the 
Gospel,  such,  for  instance,  as  the  Temptation 
in  the  Wilderness,  and  the  Agony  in  the 
Garden,  with  the  descent  of  the  angel,  there 
could  be  no  eye-witnesses.  Of  the  Annuncia- 
tion and  the  Immaculate  Conception  the  only 
possible  witness  tells  us  nothing.  It  is  hard 
indeed  to  see  how  we  could  have  eye-wit- 
nesses  to    anything    which    happened    before 


156      MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 


the  calling  of  the  apostles.  Who  can  have 
reported  to  the  Evangelist  the  canticles  of 
Mary,  Zacharias,  and  Simeon?  Here  surely 
we  are  dealing  with  legend  and  poetry,  not 
with  historic  fact. 

Between  the  narratives  of  the  different 
Gospels  there  are  discrepancies  which  baffle 
the  harmonists.  Between  the  narratives  of 
the  Resurrection  and  the  events  which  follow 
there  are  discrepancies  which  drive  the  har- 
monists to  despair.  There  are  contradictions 
as  to  the  names  of  the  apostles,  the  behav- 
iour of  the  two  thieves  at  the  Crucifixion, 
the  attendance  at  the  cross.  There  is  a  con- 
tradiction with  regard  to  the  miracle  at 
Gadara,  one  Gospel  giving  a  single  demo- 
niac, the  other  a  pair.  Three  Gospels  treat 
Galilee,  the  fourth  Judea,  as  the  chief  centre 
of  the  ministry.  One  Gospel  gives,  another 
omits,  such  incidents  as  the  Annunciation, 
the  Adoration  of  the  Magi,  the  Temptation, 
the  Transfiguration,  the  raising  of  Lazarus, 
and  the  conversation  with  the  woman  of 
Samaria;  while  the  suggestion  that  the  nar- 
ratives   were    intended    to    supplement    each 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     167 


other  is  gratuitous  in  itself,  and  is  repelled 
by  the  existence  of  a  large  common  element 
in  the  first  three.  But  the  most  notable 
discrepancy  of  all  perhaps  is  that  respecting 
the  day  of  the  Crucifixion,  and  the  character 
of  the  Last  Supper.  The  first  three  Gospels 
make  Christ  eat  the  Passover  with  his  dis- 
ciples and  suffer  on  the  day  following;  the 
fourth  puts  the  Crucifixion  on  the  day  of 
the  Preparation  for  the  Passover,  suggesting 
that  Christ  was  the  Paschal  Lamb  sacrificed 
for  the  sins  of  the  world.  In  the  first  three 
Gospels  the  Last  Supper  plainly  is  the  Pass- 
over; in  the  fourth  it  as  plainly  :i  not.  To 
force  the  two  accounts  into  agreement  des- 
perate expedients,  such  as  the  supposition 
of  a  religious  meal,  not  identical  with  the 
Passover  but  identical  with  the  Last  Supper, 
have  been  tried.  But  God  would  scarcely 
have  left  inspired  narratives  of  an  event  on 
which  human  salvation  was  to  depend  to  be 
reconciled  by  extreme  expedients  invented 
eighteen  centuries  afterwards  by  learned  and 
ingenious  minds.  Unless  the  two  accounts 
can    be    reconciled,    it    is    obvious    that    the 


168     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 


% 


\m 


author  of  one  of  them  can  have  been  no  eye- 
witness nor  even  well-informed. 

It  is  idle  to  contend  that  such  discrepan- 
cies are  of  a  minor  kind  and  the  ordinary 
variations  of  human  testimony,  even  on  the 
strange  supposition  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
would  either  lapse  into  the  infirmities  of 
human  testimony  or  simulate  them  in  dic- 
tating the  Gospel  narrative.  They  are  such 
as  would  certainly  invalidate  human  testi- 
mony to  any  extraordinary  event. 

Between  the  general  representation  of 
Christ's  character  and  teaching  in  the  first 
three  Gospels  and  that  in  the  fourth,  there 
is  marked  divergence.  The  teaching  in  the 
first  three  is  generally  ethical,  in  the  fourth 
it  is  theological.  The  character  of  Christ  in 
the  first  is  that  of  a  divine  teacher;  in  the 
fourth  it  is  that  of  the  second  Person  in  the 
Trinity  and  the  Logos.  The  fourth  Gos- 
pel has,  indeed,  in  modern  times  been  pre- 
ferred to  the  other  three  on  account  of  its 
specially  theological  character  and  its  spir- 
itual elevation.  When  we  find  a  similar 
divergence  between  the  Xenophontic  and  the 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     159 

Platonic  Socrates,  we  conclude  that  the  Pla- 
tonic Socrates  is  largely  the  creation  of  Plat  . 
Testimony  is  plainly  invalidated  by  the  asc  n  - 
dency  of  imagination. 

Sufficient  attention  seems  hardly  to  have 
been  paid  to  the  adverse  weight  of  negative 
evidence.  A  teacher  who  has  been  drawing 
all  eyes  upon  him  by  his  words  and  by  a  course 
of  stupendous  miracles  culminating  in  the 
raising  from  the  dead  < ."  r;  nan  who  had  been 
four  days  in  the  grave ,  "itt  o  Jerusalem  amidst 
the  acclamations  of  a,  v^f  t  concourse  of  people. 
He  is  brought  befor^  the  Sanhedrim  and  after- 
wards tried  in  the  uc  it  public  manner  before 
the  Roman  governor.  The  governor's  wife  is 
warned  about  him  in  a  dream.  He  is  crucified, 
and  when  he  expires  miraculous  darkness  covers 
the  earth  for  three  hours,  the  earth  quakes,  the 
veil  of  the  temple  is  rent  in  twain  from  the 
top  to  the  bottom,  the  tombs  are  opened,  and 
bodies  of  the  saints  that  slept  come  forth 
out  of  the  grave,  enter  into  the  holy  city, 
and  appear  to  many.  The  Roman  centurion 
and  the  watch  are  impressed,  and  say  that 
this  truly  was  the  Son  of  God.     But  other- 


;M 


li'^' 


160     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 


wise  no  impression  is  made,  no  notice  of 
these  tremendous  events  seems  to  be  taken, 
no  trace  of  them  is  left  in  general  history, - 
no  one  apparently  is  converted,  not  even 
Saul.  The  Jews,  of  whose  acts  this  was  an 
overwhelming  condemnation,  are  so  little 
impressed  that  they  think  only  of  bribing  the 
watch  to  confess  that  the  body  of  Jesus  had 
been  stolen  from  the  tomb. 

We  cannot  pick  and  choose.  The  evidence 
upon  which  the  miraculous  darkness  and  the 
apparitions  of  the  dead  rest  is  the  same  as 
that  upon  which  all  the  other  miracles  rest, 
and  must  be  accepted  or  rejected  in  all  the 
cases  alike. 

The  Acts,  like  the  Gospels,  is  anonymous, 
and  if  its  author  is  identical  with  the  author 
of  the  third  Gospel,  this  shows  that  he 
was  not  an  eye-witness  of  the  Resurrection. 
An  examination    of    its   internal    difficulties 


1  Gibbon,  who  has  not  failed  to  make  the  point,  though 
he  has  hardly  pushed  the  argument  home,  observes  that  the 
preternatural  darkness  happened  in  the  time  of  Pliny,  the 
naturalist,  and  of  Seneca,  who  wrote  a  collection  of  natural 
facts  in  seven  books,  and  is  not  mentioned  by  either  of  them. 
Pliny,  however,  would  be  a  boy  at  that  date. 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     UU 


would  be  beside  our  present  purpose,  which  is 
to  a'scertaiu  the  amount  and  value  of  the  ocular 
testimony  to  the  miracles.  It  seems  to  be  ad- 
mitted that  there  is  no  positive  and  unequiv- 
ocal evidence  of  the  existence  of  this  book 
till  towards  the  end  of  the  second  century. 

Is  it  conceivable  that  Providence  would 
allow  vital  truth,  or  anything  essential  to 
our  belief  in  vital  truth,  to  be  stamped  with 
the  mark  of  falsehood?  The  demoniac  mira- 
cles are  clearly  stamped  with  the  mark  of 
Jewish  ouperstition.  To  the  imagination  of 
the  Jews  at  this  period,  spirits  good  and  evil 
were  everywhere  present.  They  were  with 
you  in  the  lecture-room;  they  were  with 
you  in  every  function  of  life.  From  the 
fourth  Gospel  demoniac  miracles  are  absent, 
not  because  that  Gospel  is  supplementary,  a 
supposition  for  which,  as  was  before  said, 
there  is  no  sort  of  colour,  but  because  the 
first  three  Gospels  were  written  for  Jewish 
readers  to  whom  demoniac  miracles  were  con- 
genial, while  the  fourth  Gospel  was  written 
for  an  intellectual  circle  to  which  they  were 
not   congenial,   and  perhaps    at  a  later  day. 


M   * 


n 

I' ' 


162     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  JN  CHRISTIANITY 

According  to  Mark,  Jesus  casts  a  legion 
of  devils  out  of  a  man  into  a  herd  of  two 
thousand  swine,  which  forthwith  rush  down 
into  the  sea  and  are  drowned.  The  comment 
of  an  orthodox  writer  of  great  eminence  upon 
this  astounding  and  repellent  miracle  is 
this:  "That  the  demoniac  was  healed  — 
that  in  the  terrible  final  paroxysm  which 
usually  accompanied  the  deliverance  from 
this  strange  and  awful  malady,  a  herd  of 
swine  was  in  some  way  affected  with  such 
wild  terror  as  to  rush  headlong  in  large 
n  imbers  over  a  steep  hillside  into  the  waters 
of  the  lake  —  and  that,  in  the  minds  of  all 
who  were  present,  including  that  of  the  suf- 
ferer himself,  this  precipitate  rushing  of  the 
swine  was  connected  with  the  man's  release 
from  his  demoniac  thraldom  —  thus  much  is 
clear.  "^  Such  attempts  to  minimize  the 
miracles  or  reduce  them  within  the  compass 
of  possible  belief  are  common  in  writings 
of  liberal  theologians,  especially  of  Germans. 
In  the  miracle  of  the  conversion  of  water 
into  wine  at  Cana,  Olshausen  would  have  us 
»  The  Life  of  Christ,  by  Frederic  W.  Farrar,  I.,  337. 


MIRACULOUS  ELKMKNr  IN  VJIRISTIANITY     163 


suppose  that  wo  have  only  an  accelerated 
operation  of  nature ;  Neander,  that  the  water 
was  magnetized;  Lan'je,  that  the  guests  were 
in  a  state  of  supernatural  exaltation.  With 
regard  to  the  ncceloration  hypothesis,  a  criti- 
cal physicist  has  remarked  that  nature  alone, 
whatever  time  you  give  her,  will  never  make 
thirty  imperial  gallons  of  wine  without  at 
I  ast  ten  pounds  of  carbon.* 

What  is  hard  to  believe  in  the  miracle  of 
Bethesda,  the  liberal  theologian  escapes  by 
remarking  that  there  is  no  indication  in  the 
narrative  that  any  one  who  used  the  water 
was  at  once  or  miraculously  healed;  that  the 
repeated  use  of  an  intermittent  and  gaseous 
spring,  a  character  which  more  than  one  of 
the  springs  about  Jerusalem  continue  to  bear 
to  the  present  day,  was,  doubtless,  likely  to 
produce  most  beneficial  results.  He  further 
suggests  that  it  was  as  much  the  man's  will 
that  was  paralyzed  as  his  limbs.  Of  the  troub- 
ling of  the  water  by  the  angel,  apologists  are 
glad  to  be  rid  by  dismissing  it  as  a  popular 
legend,  interpolated  into  the  text  of  St.  John. 
But  so  long  as  anything  miraculous  is  left  the 

1  Farrar,  i.  168. 


■IHI*'. 


1C4     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IX  CHRISTIANITY 

difficulty  of  proof  remains;  while  if  nothing 
miraculous  is  left  there  is  an  end  of  this  dis- 
cussion. Nor,  it  must  be  repeated,  can  we 
pick  and  choose  among  the  miracles,  as  some 
are  evidently  inclined  to  do.  The  evidence 
for  the  miracle  of  the  demoniac  and  the  swine 
is  just  the  same  as  that  for  any  other  miracle. 
All  rest  upon  the  same  testimony  and  must 
stand  or  fall  together. 

Jewish  belief  both  in  angels  and  devils  is 
entwined  with  the  history  of  the  first  three 
Gospels;  the  archangel  Gabriel,  with  a  He- 
brew name,  announces  the  birth  of  Christ; 
angels  proclaim  it  to  the  shepherds;  angels 
appear  again  at  the  tomb  of  Christ;  Satan 
comes  in  person  to  tempt  Christ  in  the  wil- 
derness. There  are  angels  in  the  fourth 
Gospel,  ]  at  there  is  no  personal  Satan. 

From  the  preface  to  the  third  Gospel  it 
appears  that  many  had  drawn  up  narratives 
concerning  the  life  of  Christ.  Upon  what 
principle  the  four  were  selected  by  the 
Church  as  inspired  and  authoritative  we  can- 
not tell.  Irenieus  said  that  as  there  were 
four   quarters    of    the    world   and   four   chief 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY      165 


winds,  the  Gospels,  which  were  to  be  coex- 
tensive with  the  world  and  to  be  the  breath 
of  life  to  its  inhabitants,  must  be  four.  Be- 
sides, the  Gospel  was  given  by  him  who  sits 
above  the  fourfold  cherubim,  four  was  the 
number  of  the  Beasts,  and  four  were  God's 
covenants  through  Adam,  Noah,  Moses,  and 
Christ.  It  is  probable  that  these  four  narra- 
tives survived  by  their  intrinsic  merits.  But 
for  their  authenticity  little  security  can  be 
found  in  the  critical  faculty  or  discernment 
of  the  patristic  age. 

Miraculous  Christianity  involves  anti-sci- 
entific ideas  of  the  world.  It  assumes  that 
the  earth  is  the  centre  of  the  universe  with 
the  heaven,  which  is  the  abode  of  the  Deity, 
stretched  above  it,  and  Hades  sunk  beneath 
it.  The  angels  and  the  mystic  dove  descend 
from  the  skies,  and  the  risen  Christ  ascends 
to  them.  When  Satan  shows  Christ  all  the 
kingdoms  of  the  earth  from  a  high  mountain, 
the  writer  seems  to  take  the  globe  for  a 
plane.  The  theological  geocentricism,  which 
makes  our  planet  the  centre  of  all  interest, 
tlie  especial  care  of  the  Divinity,  and  the  sole 


»''?■••' 


166      MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

field  of  divine  action,  appears  in  the  Johan- 
nine  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  It  might  be 
possible  to  inmgine  Deity  stooping  from  a 
limited  heaven  to  redeem  the  inhabitants  of 
earth.  It  would  have  been  hardly  possible 
to  imagine  a  Being  who  fills  eternity  and 
infinity  becoming,  for  the  redemption  of  one 
speck  in  the  universe,  an  embryo  in  the 
womb  of  a  Jewish  maiden.  For  this  stupen- 
dous doctrine  our  principal  evidence  is  the 
anonymous  work  of   a  mystic  writer. 

The  Incarnation,  it  will  be  observed,  is 
the  centre  of  this  whole  circle  of  miracles. 
Without  it  they  can  be  hardly  said  to  have 
a  purpose  or  a  meaning.  But  since  our  rejec- 
tion of  the  authenticity  and  authority  of  the 
book  of  Genesis,  the  purpose  and  meaning  of 
the  Incarnation  itself  have  been  withdrawn. 
If  there  was  no  Fall  of  Man,  there  can  be  no 
need  of  the  Redemption.  If  there  was  no 
need  of  the  Redemption,  there  can  have  been 
no  motive  for  the  Incarnation.  The  whole 
ecclesiastical  scheme  of  salvation  with  all  its 
miraculous  appurtenances  apparently  falls  to 
the  ground.     Tliis  is  a  vital  point. 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     1G7 

In  the  story  of  the  Star  of  the  Nativity 
primitive  astronomy  and  astrology  are  involved. 
It  is  useless  to  attempt  scientific  explana- 
tions, such  as  a  remarkable  conjunction  of 
the  planets,  or  tha  temporary  appearance 
and  sudden  extinction  of  a  star.  The  Magi, 
as  astrologers,  recognize  the  star  of  Christ; 
it  moves  before  them  as  a  guide,  regardless 
of  the  general  march  of  planets  or  the  sidereal 
system,  and  stops  over  the  cradle  in  which 
the  child  of  destiny  lies. 

There  is  one  class  of  the  miraculous  evi- 
dences respecting  which  we  have  undoubtedly 
the  means  of  forming  our  own  judgment. 
We  can  tell  whether  there  was  really  a 
miraculous  fulfilment  of  Hebrew  prophecies 
in  the  histor}'^  of  Jesus.  To  the  alleged 
prophecy  that  Christ  should  be  called  a 
Nazarene,  there  is  nothing  whatsoever  corre- 
sponding in  the  Old  Testament.  Apologists, 
after  trying  such  expedients  as  the  identifica- 
tion of  Nazarene  with  Nazarite,  which  even 
if  it  were  feasible  would  help  them  but 
little,  Christ  having  fulfilled  none  of  the 
conditions  of  a  Nazarite,  are  fain  to  give  up 


pSpF 

P 
it. 

168     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  m  CHRISTIANITY 

the  problem  in  despair.  But  once  more  it 
must  be  said  that  we  cannot  pick  and 
choose.  Our  assurance  of  the  miraculous 
fulfilment  of  an  Old  Testament  prophecy  in 
this  and  the  other  cases  is  the  same,  while  it 
is  impossible  to  think  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
would  either  purposely  misquote  or  lapse  into 
involuntary  misquotation.  In  Matthew  xxi. 
5-7,  the  supposed  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy 
is  founded  upon  a  literary  error  into  which 
a  writer  acquainted  with  Hebrew  literature 
could  hardly  have  fallen.  The  "ass  "and  the 
"colt,  the  foal  of  an  ass,"  are  in  the  Hebrew 
not  two  things  but  two  expressions  for  the 
same  thing,  and  we  have  before  us  not  only 
a  misconstruction,  but,  as  it  is  hardly  possible 
that  Jesus  could  have  ridden  at  once  upon 
the  ass  and  upon  ihe  foai,  a  probable  adapta- 
tion «^<*  the  history  to  the  fulfilment  of  the 
supposed  prophecy.  The  same  may  be  said 
with  regard  to  the  alleged  fulfilment  of  the 
Scripture  in  John  xix.  24,  where  the  words 
of  the  Psalm,  "They  parted  ray  garment 
among  them,  and  upon  my  vesture  did  they 
cast  lots,"  are  taken  as  denoting  two  actions. 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     169 


when  they  are  a  double  expression,  after  the 
manner  of  Hebrew  poetry,  for  one.  "  I  called 
my  son  out  of  Egypt,"  as  it  stands  in  Hosea 
xi.  1,  can  by  no  ingenuity  be  referred  to  any- 
thing but  the  Exodus,  not  to  mention  the 
strong  suspicion  which  here  again  is  raised 
of  a  story  framed  to  correspond  with  the  sup- 
posed prophecy.  "Behold  a  virgin  shall  con- 
ceive and  bear  a  son,"  in  Isaiah  vii.  14,  is 
evidently  a  sign  ^iven  by  the  prophet  in 
relation  to  a  crisis  of  contemporary  history, 
and  has  plainly  not  the  remotest  connection 
with  the  immaculate  conception  of  Jesus. 
Messianic  predictions,  such  as  "The  sceptre 
shall  not  depart  from  Judah  nor  ilic  ruler's 
staff  from  between  his  feet  until  Shiloh  come 
and  unto  him  shall  the  obedience  of  the 
peoples  be,"  not  only  were  not  fbliiPed  bii. 
were  contradicted  by  the  history  o!  JesMs, 
who  was  not  a  temporal  ruler  or  deliverer, 
and  was  therefore  not  ecognized  as  tlie  Mes- 
siah by  the  Jews.  >fone  in  short  of  the 
so-called  prophecies  will  be  found  to  be 
more  than  applications,  and  many  of  them  as 
applications    are     far  fetched.      This  is   true 


170     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 


<f 


even  of  the  most  remarkable  of  the  number, 
the  description  of  the  oppressed  and  sorrow- 
ing servant  of  Jehovah,  in  Isaiah  liii.  3, 
the  author  of  which  cannot  be  said  to  have 
distinctly  foretold  anything  in  the  history 
of  Jesus,  even  if  we  take  Jesus  to  have 
been  so  preeminently  a  man  of  sorrows,  a 
point  on  which  a  word  will  be  presently 
said.  In  no  single  case  can  Jesus,  or 
any  event  of  his  life,  be  said  to  have  been 
present  to  the  mental  eye  of  the  prophet.  In 
fact,  divines  of  the  more  rationalistic  school 
are  retiring  from  the  ground  of  miraculous 
prophecy  to  that  of  ethical  application,  a 
movement  parallel  to  that  which  they  are 
performing  in  the  case  of  the  miracles  by 
substituting  natural  causes,  as  far  as  they 
can,  for  divine  interruption  of  the  course  of 
nature.  But  applications,  even  if  they  are 
apposite,  are  not  prophecies.  A  similar  set 
might  probably  be  framed  for  almost  any 
marked  character  of  history  in  a  nation  pos- 
sessed of  an  ancient  literature.  On  this  ques- 
tion, as  on  that  of  miracles,  orthodoxy  retreats, 
covering  its   movement  with  language  which, 


<••! 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     171 


while  it  renounces  inspiration,  clings  with- 
out any  definite  reason  to  the  belief  in  some- 
thing which  is  not  human  but  divine. 

The  martyrdoms  of  the  apostles,  it  has  been 
said,  are  testimony  of  the  miracles,  since 
without  the  assurance  of  the  miracles  the 
pains  of  martyrdom  would  not  have  been 
faced.  This  history  contradicts.  To  say  noth- 
ing of  the  persecutions  endured  under  Nero 
and  Diocletian,  when  belief  in  miracles  still 
lived,  we  have  instances  in  abundance  at 
the  time  of  the  Reformation  of  martyrdom 
undergone  for  the  doctrine  of  the  reformers, 
though  no  miracles  were  even  alleged  to  have 
taken  place.  Nor  are  such  cases  confined  to 
the  Christian  pale.  The  sect  of  the  Babis  in 
Persia  has  in  recent  times  undergone  the  most 
cruel  persecution,  not  only  without  the  sup- 
port of  miracles  but  for  a  faith  which  Chris- 
tians pronounce  false.  Servetus  died  for 
Socinianism,  and  Giordano  Bruno  for  scep- 
ticism. St.  Paul  endured  a  life  of  martyr- 
dom, but  evidently  it  was  for  love  of  Christ 
and  for  the  faith.  That  Christ  had  risen  was 
an  essential  part  of  his  faith,  and  it  is  in  this 


41 


172     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 


aspect,  rather  than  as  a  confirmatory  miracle, 
that  it  presents  itself  to  the  mind  of  Paul. 

No  man  of  comprehensive  mind,  unless  it 
be  Renan  in  his  dealing  with  the  raising  of 
Lazarus,  has  taken  the  miracles  for  creations 
of  fraud.  They  are  the  offspring  of  a  child- 
like fancy  in  a  totally  uncritical  age.  They 
are  a  halo  which  naturally  grew  round  the 
head  of  the  adored  Teacher  and  Founder,  as 
it  grew  round  the  head  of  every  mediaeval 
saint.  Thtut  world  teemed  with  miracle,  both 
divine  and  diabolical.  Jesus  himself  is  rep- 
resented as  recognizing  miracles  of  both 
kinds.  He  challenges  his  opponents  to  say, 
if  he  by  Beelzebub  casts  out  devils,  by  whom 
do  their  sons  cast  them  out.  Instead  of  a 
disposition  to  criticise,  there  was  a  domi- 
nant predisposition  to  accept.  If  in  the 
country  of  Descartes  highly  educated  men 
could  believe  in  the  miracles  wrought  at  the 
tomb  of  the  saintly  Deacon  Paris,  how  much 
more  easily  could  Galilean  peasants,  or  sim- 
ple-minded disciples  of  whatever  race,  believe 
in  the  miracles  ascribed,  perhaps  long  after 
his     death,    to    Jesus?       Dr.    Arnold    asked 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     173 

whether  it  was  possible  that  there  should  be 
myths  in  the  age  of  Tacitus.  The  age  of 
Tacitus  it  was,  but  not  the  country;  though 
even  in  the  country  of  Tacitus  miraculous 
signs  attended  the  births  or  deaths  of  Caesars, 
and  Tacitus  himself  records  miracles  reported 
to  have  been  performed  by  Vespasian,  in 
which,  however,  nobody  believes.  The  Jews 
were  further  prepared  for  the  acceptance  of 
fresh  miracles  by  their  traditional  acceptance 
of  those  of  the  Old  Testament.  So  devoid 
were  they  of  any  conception  of  natural  law, 
or  of  anything  except  a  direct  action  of  Deity, 
that  with  them  a  miracle  would  hardly  be 
miraculous. 

If  we  must  resign  the  miracles,   the  Mes- 
sianic prophecies   with   their  supposed  fulfil- 
ment  in    Clirist,   .aid    the    Trinitarian    creed, 
what  remains   to   us   of   the    Gospel?     There  f 
remain  to  us  the  Character,  the  sayings,   and  , 
the  parables,  which  made  and  have  sustained  • 
moral,    though   not   ritualistic,    dogmatic,    or 
persecuting,     Christendom.        There      r'~main  ; 
the    supremacy    of   conscience    over    law    and 
the    recognition    of    motive    as    that    which  ; 


174     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  L'HRISTIANITY 


\ 


I 


determines  the  quality  of  action.  The 
character  is  only  impaired  as  the  model 
and  guiding  star  of  humanity  by  supposing 
that  it  was  preterhuman.  We  cannot  even 
conceive  the  union  of  two  natures,  divine 
and  human,  though  we  may  mechanically 
repeat  the  form  of  words.  The  sayings  of 
Christ  would  be  not  less  true  or  applicable 
if  they  had  been  cast  ashore  by  the  tide  of 
time  without  anything  to  designate  their 
source.  The  parable  of  the  prodigal  son, 
that  of  the  labourers  in  the  vineyard,  or 
that  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  would  touch  our 
hearts  whoever  might  be  deemed  their  author. 
There  remains,  moreover,  the  ethical  beauty 
of  the  Gospels  themselves,  unapproachable 
after  its  kind.  Their  miracles  are  miracles 
of  mercy,  not  of  destruction,  like  many  of  the 
miracles  of  the  Old  Testament.  When  James 
and  Jot'i  propose  to  perform  an  Old  Testa- 
ment n  trade  by  commanding  fire  to  come 
down  from  heaven  and  destroy  an  inhospita- 
ble village,  they  are  rebuked  and  told  they 
know  not  of  what  manner  of  spirit  they  are. 
In  this  sense  it  may  be  said  that  the  mira- 


M.r^' 


li«'  :•  i 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     176 


cles  confirm  the  Gospel  and  the  Gospel  con- 
firms the  miracles.  The  Inquisition,  to  justify 
its  existence,  could  find  among  Christ's  words 
none  more  apposite  than  "Compel  them  to 
come  in,"  said  by  the  giver  of  the  feast  in 
the  parable.  Thv>  halo  of  mi  icle  is  worthy 
of  the  figure.  If  there  is  a  Supreme  Being, 
and  if  ho  is  anywhere  manifest  in  human 
history,  it  is  here. 

A  biography  of  Christ  there  cannot  be. 
There  are  no  genuine  materials  for  it,  as 
Strauss  truly  says.  Four  compilations  of 
legend  cannot  be  pieced  together  so  as  to 
make  the  history  of  a  life.  No  ingenuity 
can  produce  a  chronological  sequence  of 
scene  such  as  a  biographer  requires.  The 
"Lives,"  so  called,  are  merely  the  four  Gos- 
pels cut  into  shreds,  which  are  forced  into 
some  sort  of  order,  while,  to  impart  to 
the  narrative  an  air  of  reality,  it  is  pro- 
fusely decked  out  with  references  to  local 
scenery,  allusions  to  national  customs,  and 
Hebrew  names.  Each  biographer  gives  us 
a  Christ  according  to  his  own  prepossessions ; 
Roman    Catholic,     Anglican,     Protestant,     or 


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176     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 


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Rationalist.  The  Roman  CathoUc  priest  pre- 
sents him  as  a  living  crucifix ;  the  New  York 
minister  as  a  divine  preacher.  Renan's  Life 
of  Jesus,  though  it  is  exquisite  as  a  work  of 
literary  art,  as  a  biography  is  worth  no  more 
than  the  rest.  It  has  no  critical  basis,  and 
the  facts  are  arbitrarily  selected  and  arranged 
in  virtue  of  a  learned  insight  which  Renan 
supposes  himself  to  possess.  Nothing  is 
more  arbitrary  than  the  selection  of  the  rais- 
ing of  Lazarus  as  an  example  of  pious  fraud. 
Nor  does  Renan's  work  escape  the  idiosyn- 
crasy of  the  writer.  We  find  in  it  a  touch 
of  sentimentality,  or  even  of  something  ver- 
ging on  the  sensuous,  which  bespeaks  a 
Parisian  hand. 

Did  Jesus  give  himself  out  or  allow  his 
followers  to  designate  him  as  the  Messiah? 
It  is  impossible  to  tell.  All  that  we  can  say 
is  that  his  disciples,  iind  not  only  those 
whose  traditions  are  embodied  in  the  first 
Gospel,  desired  to  identify  him  with  the  hope 
of  Israel  and  applied  or  wrested  passages  of 
the  Old  Testament  to  that  intent.  With 
that  object  evidently  were  produced,  by  two 


! 

t 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     177 


diiSferent  hands,  the  two  genealogies,  which 
hopelessly  diverge  from  each  other,  while  one 
of  them,  by  arbitrary  erasion,  forces  the  pedi- 
gree into  three  mystic  sections  of  fourteen 
each;  a  clear  proof  that  it  was  not  taken 
from  any  public  record,  even  if  we  could 
suppose  it  possible  that  amid  all  the  convul- 
sions of  Judea  the  record  of  a  peasant's 
pedigree  had  been  preserved.  One  of  the 
genealogies,  moreover,  includes  the  mythical 
line  of  patriarchs  between  Adam  and  Abra- 
ham. The  Messiahship  of  Jesus  is  a  ques- 
tion with  which  we  need  practically  concern 
ourselves  no  more.  The  Messiah  was  a 
dream  of  the  tribal  pride  of  the  Jew,  to 
which,  as  to  other  creations  of  tribal  or 
national  pride  or  fancy,  we  may  bid  a  long 
farewell.  That  it  should  be  necessary  for 
the  redeemer  of  the  Jewish  race  to  trace  his 
pedigree  to  a  hero  so  dear  to  the  national 
heart,  though  morally  so  questionable,  as 
David,  was  natural  enough;  but  who  can 
believe  that  this  was  necessary  for  the  Re- 
deemer of  mankind?  It  is  rather  lamentable 
to  think  how  much  study  and  thought  have 


IfL 


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h  i^ 


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178     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHBISTIANITT 

been  wasted  in  the  attempt  to  establish  the 
fulfilment  of  a  Hebrew  vision,  devoid  of 
importance  or  interest  for  the  rest  of  the 
human  race. 

What  was  the  relation  of  Christ  to  Juda- 
ism ?  His  culture  manifestly  was  Jewish ;  he 
accepted  the  sacred  books  of  the  nation, 
treating  the  book  of  Daniel  as  authentic  and 
the  story  of  Jonah  as  history;  he  taught  in 
the  synagogues;  he  fulfilled  all  righteousness 
by  his  observance  of  the  ceremonial  law.  He 
was  a  reformer  and  a  regenerator,  not  a  revo- 
lutionist. It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  he 
was  of  pure  Jewish  race,  though  the  popula- 
tion of  Galilee  was  very  mixed  and  was,  on 
that  account,  despised  by  the  blue  blood  of 
Jerusalem,  while  the  fabrication  of  genealo- 
gies seems  rather  to  indicate  some  misgivings 
on  this  point.  Here,  again,  we  are  perplexed 
by  the  discrepancies  among  the  authorities, 
if  authorities  they  can  be  called.  In  some 
places  Christ  is  made  to  represent  himself  as 
being  sent  only  to  the  lost  sheep  of  the 
house  of  Israel ;  as  coming  not  to  destroy  the 
law,  but  to  fulfil  it  and  to  establish  every 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     179 


; 


jot  and  tittle  of  it  for  ever;  as  regarding  all 
outside  the  pale  of  Judaism  in  the  light  of 
dogs,  worthy  only  to  eat  of  the  crumbs 
under  the  Judaic  table;  as  forbidding  his 
apostles  to  enter  any  city  of  the  Gentiles  or 
Samaritans.  Elsewhere  he  selects  a  Samaritan 
in  contrast  to  the  self-righteous  Jew  as  a 
type  of  charity,  praises  the  faith  of  a  hea- 
then soldier  as  greater  than  any  found  in 
Israel,  and  chooses  the  Samaritan  woman  as 
the  recipient  of  his  highest  and  most  memor- 
able utterance  concerning  the  nature  of  reli- 
gion, while  the  parables  of  the  prodigal 
son  and  the  labourers  in  the  vineyard  seem 
also  symbolically  to  suggest  the  conversion 
and  admission  of  the  Gentiles.  The  writer 
of  the  first  Gospel  evidently  draws  one  way; 
the  writer  of  the  fourth,  who  betrays  a  posi- 
tive antipathy  to  the  Jews,  the  other.  What 
is  certain  is  that  practically  Jesus  put  con- 
science above  the  law,  even  above  the  law  of  i 
the  Decalogue;  and  in  place  of  the  tribal  / 
and  half-local  religion  of  the  Jew  introduced 
the  religion  of  humanity.  For  this  Judaism 
rejected  him,  crucified  him,  and  itself,  sink-  i 


180     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 


^'V. 


I'M-   1 


m 


;■,■!; 


ing  deeper  than  ever  into  its  tribalism  and 
legalism,  remained  the  enemy  of  his  reli- 
gion and  of  his  brotherhood  of  man.  In  the 
Pauline  Epistles  we  see  Christianity  detach- 
ing itself  by  a  painful  effort  from  Judaism; 
and  we  willingly  believe  that  Paul  is  right 
in  holding  that  the  genuine  tradition  of 
Jesus  is  on  the  side   of  emancipation. 

Did  Jesus  regard  himself  or  allow  himself 
to  be  regarded  as  God?  Unitarians  quote 
strong  texts  to  the  contrary.  The  Trinita- 
rians get  their  texts  chiefly  from  the  fourth 
Gospel,  which  is  manifestly  imbued  with  the 
peculiar  views  of  its  writer  and  his  circle. 
In  fact,  it  may  be  said  to  be  one  note  of 
the  comparatively  late  composition  of  that 
Gospel,  that  time  must  have  elapsed  sufficient 
for  the  Teacher  of  Galilee  to  become,  first 
divine,  and  then  the  Second  Person  of  the 
Trinity  and  the  Alexandrian  ^ogos.  It 
seems  unlikely  that  even  in  those  days  of 
theosophic  reverie  the  author  of  the  sayings 
and  the  parables  should  ever  have  been  led 
by  spiritual  exaltation  or  by  the  adoring  love 
of  his  disciples  to  form  and  promulgate  such 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     181 


a  conception  of  himself.  At  any  rate,  we  have 
done  with  the  Alexandrian  Logos,  as  well  as 
with  the  paradoxes  of  the  Athanasian  Creed. 

We  have  done,  too,  for  ever  with  the  mixt- 
ure of  Rabbinism  and  Alexandrian  theoso- 
phy,  with  which  St.  Paul  has  been  accused 
of  overlaying  the  Christian  faith.  We  may 
bid  farewell  to  his  doctrine  of  the  Atone- 
ment. That  doctrine  is  bound  up  with  the 
belief  in  the  fall  of  Adam,  and  the  fall  of 
Adam  is  now  abandoned  as  a  fact  even  by 
orthodox  theologians,  though  they  would  fain 
substitute  for  it  some  lapse  of  the  human 
race  from  a  more  perfect  state,  without  any 
proof  either  of  the  more  perfect  state  or  of 
the  lapse.  As  was  said  before,  if  there  was 
no  Fall,  there  was  no  need  of  an  Atonement; 
if  no  need  of  an  Atonement,  there  was  no 
need  of  an  Incarnation ;  and  that  whole  cycle 
of  dogma  apparently  falls  to  the  ground. 

In  calling  himself  the  Son  of  Man  Jesus 
might  seem  to  identify  himself  with  a  mystic 
figure  in  Daniel;  but  the  Son  of  Man  is  not 
the  Son  of  God,  nor  is  it  the  Son  of  a  Jew; 
it  is  a  title  of  humanity. 


n\ 


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'llv 
't.  J 


[     «r 
1    I 


182     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

From  such  ethical  limitations  and  peculi- 
arities as  cling  to  the  charactei's  and  teach- 
ing of  philosophers  of  Athens  and  Roman 
Stoics,  the  character  and  teaching  of  Jesus 
are  essentially  free.  There  is  no  brand  of 
nationality  or  race  to  interfere  with  our 
acceptance  of  him  as  pattern  and  model  of 
humanity.  His  limitations  are  those  of  a 
peasant  of  Galilee  seeing  nothing  of  modern 
and  complex  civilization.  For  Jesus  politics 
had  no  existence;  at  least,  the  only  political 
relation  known  to  him  was  that  of  provincial 
subjection  to  the  military  empire  of  Rome, 
so  that  all  political  questions  were  perfectly 
solved  for  him  when  he  had  said,  "Render 
unto  Caesar  the  things  which  are  Caesar's, 
and  unto  God  the  things  which  are  God's." 
He  saw  little  of  commerce;  if  he  ever 
looked  on  Tyre  and  Sidon  it  was  from  afar; 
trade,  as  it  showed  itself  in  the  money- 
changers and  salesmen  of  the  temple,  was 
revolting  to  him;  from  the  magnificent 
buildings  of  the  capital  his  simplicity  seems 
to  have  recoiled.  Art  Judea  had  not,  but 
to    art    he    would    probably    have    been    in- 


f  'i  { 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     183 


»» 


different.  To  his  eye  the  lily  of  the  field 
was  more  beautiful  than  Solomon  in  all  his 
glory,  and  would  have  been  more  beautiful 
than  the  work  of  Phidias.  Wealth  ap- 
peared to  him  only  in  the  guise  of  Dives 
with  Lazarus  lying  at  his  gate,  not  in  its 
more  beneficent  form;  and  therefore  to  him 
wealth  seemed  in  itself  unblest  and  poverty 
in  itself  blest.  His  benign  influence  has  1 
been  mainly  over  the  individual  heart  and 
in  the  simple  relations  of  life.  Over  poli- 
tics, commerce,  the  great  world,  and  civiliza- 
tion generally  his  influence,  notwithstanding 
national  professions  and  state  churches,  has 
been  far  less.  The  pursuit  of  wealth  has  / 
been  eager  among  the  professed  disciples  of 
him  who  preached  the  Sermon  upon  the  ^ 
Mount,   and    in    the    temples    of   the  Prince  j 


of  Peace  have  been  hung  up  the  trophies  of 
war.  The  morality  of  civil,  commercial,  and 
social  life  has,  perhaps,  rather  suffered  by 
the  formal  profession  of  an  unattainable 
standard,  and  the  world  has  been  more  evil 
than  it  might  have  been  if  the  ideal  of  good 
men  had  not  been  withdrawal  from  an  evil 


hi  -t* 


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1.1 


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Ji. 


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184     MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

world.  Among  the  teachings  of  Jesus  re- 
corded in  the  Gospels,  learning,  literature, 
and  science  have  no  place.  To  the  mind  of 
Jesus,  had  they  presented  themselves,  they 
would  probably  have  seemed  entirely  alien. 
The  simplicity  of  the  child  and  the  spiritual 
insight  of  poverty  were  in  his  eyes  superior 
to  the  wisdom  of  the  wise.  In  this  respect 
his  thoroughgoing  disciples  have  generally 
reflected  the  image  of  their  Master.  What 
would  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  have  made  of 
European  civilization?  Other  limitations  of 
Jesus  were  his  estrangement  from  domestic 
life  with  its  relations,  and  the  curtailment  of 
his  experience  by  an  early  death. 

To  one  of  low  estate  in  a  province 
oppressed  by  foreign  rule,  full  of  misery 
and  leprosy,  it  might  well  seem  that  this 
world  was  evil  and  the  only  chance  of  hap- 
piness for  man  was  by  escaping  from  it  to  a 
better.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  pes- 
simist has  a  right  to  say  that  the  Gospel  is 
with  him  ao  far  as  the  present  world  is  con- 
cerned. 

Allowance  must  be  made  also  for  Oriental 


h   I 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     186 


'l\ 


iisery 
this 
hap- 
to  a 
pes- 

)el  is 
con- 


hyperbole.  Over-carefulness  poisons  life; 
but  if  we  literally  cared  not  for  the  tilings 
of  to-morrow,  we  and  our  families  should 
starve.  The  sparrows  do  not  look  to  Provi- 
dence to  feed  them;  they  search  for  food  the 
livelong  day  themselves.  Forgiveness  is  the 
general  principle  which  even  self-interest 
prescribes;  but  if  we  were  to  offer  the 
other  cheek  to  the  smiter,  the  other  cheek 
would  too  often  be  smitten;  and  if  we  were 
to  forgive  all  wrong-doers  until  seventy 
times  seven,  wrong  would  fill  the  world. 
To  the  brotht  hood  of  men  there  is  a 
rational  limit.  In  our  relations  to  each 
other,  if  there  is  something  that  is  fraternal, 
there  is  something  that  is  not.  Competition 
and  antagonism  are  normal  facts.  The  prac- 
tical truth  lies  somewhere  between  the  view 
of  Hobbes  and  that  of  the  Gospel,  though 
with  a  recognition  of  the  Gospel  view  as  the 
ideal.  Justice,  with  her  scales  and  her 
sword,  will  keep  her  place  as  well  as  love 
or  the  enthusiasm  of  humanity.  If  the 
aggressor  tries  to  take  away  your  coat,  you 
will  have,  instead  of  giving  him  your  cloak 


ii 


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■'■lit- 


1S()     MJSACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY 

also,  to  withstand  his  aggression  in  the  court 
of  law  or  by  force.  It  would  be  bad  for  him 
as  well  as  for  you  if  you  did  not. 

Of  the  intolerance,  persecutions,  and  reli- 
gious wars  which  have  resulted  from  dog- 
matism, on  the  other  hand,  the  true  Jesus  is 
t  blameless.  If  anything  like  narrowness  or 
I  intolerance  is  thrust  upon  him  by  a  dogmatic 
narrator,  his  own  character  and  the  general 
scope  of  his  teaching  repel  it.  His  genuine 
teaching  clearly  was  ethical  and  spiritual,  not 
dogmatic.  Nor  to  him  can  be  fairly  ascribed 
asceticism,  eremitism,  the  false  idea  of  saint- 
ship  as  seclusion  and  self-torture,  or  the 
hideous  array  of  hospital  pathos  embodying 
that  idea  which  fills  the  galleries  of  mediteval 
art.  His  ministry  commences  at  a  marriage 
feast  and  his  enemies  reproach  him  with  not 
being  ascetic.  In  his  character  and  history 
there  is  no  doubt  a  large  element  of  sorrow, 
without  which  he  would  not  have  touched 
humanity.  Yet  we  think  too  much  of  Jeru- 
salem and  of  the  closing  scene  with  its  ago- 
nies, its  horrors,  and  the  circle  of  dark,  even 
of  dreadful,    dogma  which    has    been   formed 


MIRACULOUS  ELEMENT  IN  CHRISTIANITY     187 


around  it.  We  think  too  little  of  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Word  of  life,  and  of  the  land  in 
which  the  Word  of  life  was  preached.  Let 
us  sometimes  draw  a  veil  over  the  Cross, 
banish  from  our  imaginations  Jerusalem  and 
its  temple  reeking  with  bloody  sacrifice,  its 
fanatical  Judaism,  its  hypocritical  Pharisa- 
ism, its  throng  of  bigots  yelling  for  a  judi- 
cial murder.  Let  us  learn  to  see  the  great 
Teacher  of  humanity  in  the  happy  days  of 
his  mission,  while  he  gathers  round  him  the 
circle  of  loving  disciples  and  of  simple  hearts 
thirsting  for  the  waters  of  life,  in  the  vil- 
lage synagogue,  on  the  summer  hillside  or 
lake  shore,  amidst  the  vines  and  oleanders 
and  lilies  of  Galilee. 


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MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


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MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


Mr.  Leslie  Stephen,  at  the  conclusion  of 
his  Science  of  Ethics^  admits,  with  his  usual 
candour  and  courage,  that  one  great  difficulty 
remains  not  only  unsolved  but  insoluble. 
"There  is,"  he  says,  "no  absolute  coinci- 
dence between  virtue  and  happiness.  I  can- 
not prove  that  it  is  always  prudent  to  act 
rightly  or  that  it  is  always  happiest  to  be 
virtuous."  In  another  passage  he  avows  that 
in  accepting  the  altruist  theory  he  accepts, 
as  inseparable  from  it,  the  conclusion  that 
"  the  path  of  duty  does  not  coincide  with  the 
path  of  happiness";  and  he  compares  the 
attempt  to  establish  an  absolute  coincidence 
to  an  attempt  to  square  the  circle  or  dis- 
cover perpetual  motion.  In  another  passage 
he  puts  the  same  thing  in  a  concrete  form. 
"The  virtuous  men,"  he  says,   "may  be  the 

191 


-;i.  i- 


Ml ' 


I    1 


? ,  1.1 


1'"'    li  '    r  1 


192 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


very  salt  of  the  earth,  and  yet  the  discharge 
of  a  function  socially  necessary  may  involve 
their  own  misery."  "A  great  moral  and 
religious  teacher,"  he  adds,  "has  often  been 
a  martyr,  and  we  are  certainly  not  entitled 
to  assume  either  that  he  was  a  fool  for  his 
pains  or,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  highest 
conceivable  degree  of  virtue  can  make  mar- 
tyrdom agreeable."  We  may  doubt,  in  his 
opinion,  whether  it  answers  to  be  a  moral 
hero.  "In  a  gross  society,  where  the  tem- 
perate man  is  an  object  of  ridicule  and  nec- 
essarily cut  off  from  participation  in  the 
ordinary  pleasures  of  life,  he  may  find  his 
moral  squeamishness  conducive  to  misery; 
the  just  and  honourable  man  is  made  miser- 
able in  a  con'upt  society  where  the  social 
combinations  are  simply  bands  of  thieves, 
and  his  high  spirit  only  awakens  hatred;  and 
the  benevolent  is  tortured  in  proportion  to 
the  strength  of  his  sympathies  in  a  society 
where  they  meet  with  no  return,  and  where 
he  has  to  witness  cruelty  triumphant  and 
mercy  ridiculed  as  weakness."  So  that  not 
only  are  men  exposed  to  misery  by  reason  of 


m-' 


;i 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


193 


■  i)| 


their   superiority,    but  "every   reformer   who 
breaks  with  the  world,  though  for  the  world's 
good,  must  naturally  expect  much  pain  and 
must  be  often   tempted  to  think  that  peace 
and  harmony  are  worth  buying,  even  at  the 
price  of  condoning  evil."     "'Be  good  if  you 
would   be    happy'    seems   to   be   the   verdict 
even  of  worldly  prudence;  but  it  adds,  in  an 
emphatic  aside,    'Be   not  too  good.'"     Of  a 
moral  hero  it  is  said,   that  "it  may  be  true 
both  that  a  less  honourable  man  would  have 
had  a  happier  life,  and  that  a  temporary  fall 
below  the  highest   strain   of   heroism  would 
have   secured    for   him   a   greater   chance    of 
happiness."    Had  he   given  way,   "he  might 
have   made   the   discovery  —  not  a  very  rare 
one  —  that    remorse    is    among    the    passions 
most  easily  lived  down."    Mr.  Stephen  fully 
recognizes  the  existence  of  men  "capable  of 
intense  pleasure  from  purely  sensual  gratifi- 
cation, and  incapable  of  really  enjoying  any 
of  the  pleasures  which  imply  public  spirit, 
or   private  affection,  or   vivid    imagination"; 
and  he   confesses   that  with   regard   to   such 
men  the  moralist  has  no  leverage  whatever. 


.'Ill 


Hfr^t 

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194 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


The  physician  has  leverage;  so  has  the 
policeman;  but  it  is  possible,  as  Mr.  Stephen 
would  probably  admit,  to  indulge  not  only 
covetousness  but  lust  at  great  cost  to  others 
without  injury  to  your  own  health,  and  with- 
out falling  into  the  clutches  of  the  law. 

The  inference  from  Mr.  Stephen's  admission 
seems  to  be  that  duty  is  a  theistic  term.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  its  synonyms,  moral 
obligation  and  moral  law.  We  cannot  tell 
whether  they  are  binding  on  reason  unless 
we  know  whether  there  is  a  God  or  some 
superior  power  to  impose  the  law,  bestow  the 
reward,  and  enforce  the  penalty.  We  may 
extend  the  statement  to  perfect  happiness, 
which,  as  a  state  distinct  from  pleasure,  seems 
to  imply  a  guarantee  superior  to  the  accidents, 
and  a  duration  uncurtailed  by  the  brevity,  of 
mortal  life. 

With  every  man  his  own  interest  must  be 
paramount,  and  every  man's  interest  is  the 
fulfilment  of  his  strongest  desires.  As  a 
general  rule,  our  desires,  seeing  that  we  are 
domestic  and  social  as  well  as  individual, 
may  lead    us  to   promote   the   good   of   the 


m 


MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


196 


family  and  of  society.  But  this  is  not  in- 
variably the  case,  and  when  it  is  not  the 
case,  supposing  that  there  is  no  God  to  fix 
his  canon  against  evil-doing,  what  is  there 
to  withhold  a  man  from  gratifying  his  de- 
sires at  the  expense  of  society,  or  to  make 
his  gratification  criminal?  Napoleon  avowed 
that  he  deliberately  excluded  from  his  mind 
thoughts  about  any  world  but  this,  and  that 
had  he  not  done  so  he  could  not  have  achieved 
great  things.  Of  the  great  things  which  he 
did  achieve,  his  agnosticism  was  unquestionably 
a  condition.  But  of  the  great  things  which  the 
Antonines  and  other  Roman  Stoics  achieved, 
the  condition  was  not  less  unquestionably  the 
ascendancy  of  thoughts  which  Napoleon  ex- 
cluded. It  was  not  in  their  case  a  definite 
religious  belief,  but  it  was  a  belief  in  a  power 
of  righteousness  and  in  an  assured  reward  of 
virtue.  Observe,  too,  that  Napoleon  found  it 
necessary,  in  the  interest  of  political  and  social 
order,  to  restore  religion. 

"Virtue  is  the  doing  good  to  mankind  in 
obedience  to  the  will  of  God  and  for  the 
sake    of    everlasting    happiness."      So    says 


»  ! 


■4M 


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196 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


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Paley,  8peaking  with  his  usual  directness. 
He  omits  to  note  those  social  and  domestic 
desires  and  necessities  of  our  nature  which, 
in  themselves,  move  us  to  do  good  to  man- 
kind as  well  for  the  pleasure  of  doing  good 
as  for  the  hope  that  good  will  be  done  to  us 
in  turn.  Yet  it  seems  impossible  to  doubt 
that  morality,  personal  and  social,  but  espe- 
cially social,  has  hitherto  largely  rested,  in 
ordinary  minds,  on  a  foundation  of  religious 
,  belief,  including  the  belief  in  another  life 
and  in  future  rewards  and  punishments. 
That  foundation  is  now  manifestly  giving 
way.  Literature  teems  with  the  proofs  of 
this.  So  does  the  conversation  of  the  edu- 
cated classes.  So  does  even  apologetic  the- 
ology, the  attitude  of  which  is  generally  one 
of  concession  and  retreat,  while  among  large 
bodies  of  quick-witted  mechanics,  even  in 
England,  still  more  in  France  jand  other 
countries,  scepticism  is  undisguised  and 
blunt,  in  France  going  the  length  even  of 
a  comic  Life  of  Christ.  It  is  natural  to 
fear  that  unless  a  substitute  for  religion 
can,   within   a  measurable   time,  be   found,  a 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


197 


period  of  some  moral  confusion  will  ensue. 
Philosophers,  of  course,  will  be  kept  right, 
not  only  by  their  philosophy,  but  by  the  char- 
acter which  dedication  to  philosophy  implies. 
Nobody  expects  that  they  will  fall  to  com- 
mitting murder  or  adultery;  although  the 
writer,  as  he  believes,  may  himself  say  that 
he  has  witnessed  the  case  of  a  highly  edu- 
cated lind  to  which  the  leap  from  theism 
to  agnosticism  proved  morally  fatal.  It  is  not 
likely  that  there  will  be  any  sudden  catas- 
trophe. Society  will  not  fall  to  pieces.  It 
will  be  held  together  by  the  necessity  of 
labour,  of  order,  of  mutual  help  and  forbear- 
ance, by  the  domestic  and  social  affections, 
by  opinion,  by  the  law  and  the  police.  It 
has,  in  fact,  been  held  together,  after  a  cer- 
tain fashion,  in  China  by  these  forces  with 
little  aid  from  religion.  But  it  does  not 
follow  that,  pending  the  reparation  of  the 
basis,  society  may  not  undergo  a  bad  quarter 
of  an  hour,  especially  if,  in  the  absence  of 
spiritual  aims  and  of  any  hopes  beyond  this 
world,  a  passionate  thirst  for  pleasure,  and 
for  the  means  of  obtaining  it,  should  prevail. 


>  ''J 


\l 


..  {. 


W'^^ 


'^in 


M        ■  \ 


198 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


A  moral  interregnum  of  this  kind  there  actu- 
ally was  between  the  decline  of  mediaeval 
Catholicism  and  the  installation  of  Protes- 
tantism or  reformed  Catholicism  in  its  place. 
To  that  interregnum  belong  the  Borgias,  the 
Visconti,  Machiavel,  and  Catherine  de  Medi- 
cis.  The  chief  of  Christendom  glories  in  the 
massacre  of  St.  BaHholomew,  and  even  the 
court  of  England  thinks  so  lightly  of  it  as  to 
continue  negotiating  with  Catherine  de  Medici 
for  a  marriage  between  the  queen  of  England 
and  one  of  Catherine's  sons.  The  present 
vogue  of  ethical  heterodoxy  under  the  guise 
of  works  of  fiction,  among  other  things,  is 
surely  a  symptom  of  ethical  disintegration. 

Benjamin  Franklin,  describing  the  effects 
of  scepticism  on  himself  and  young  men  of 
his  time,  says  that  with  religion  morality 
gave  way  at  once,  even  to  common  honesty 
and  common  decency,  and  that  it  was  only 
after  much  reflection  that  he  began  to  sus- 
pect that  wrong  was  not  wrong  because  it 
was  forbidden,  but  that  it  was  forbidden  be- 
cause it  was  wrong.  It  is  true  this  was  in 
the  eighteenth  century,   and  the  same  effect 


^■s 


MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


199 


would  not  be  produced  on  a  Fi-aiiklin  now. 
But  the  masses  are  not  Franklins.  They  are 
not  as  capable  of  reflection  now  as  Franklin 
was  in  his  time,  and  while  they  are  coming 
up  to  his  level  the  world  may  have  that  bad 
quarter  of  an  hour. 

Even  in  couitries  where  there  is  no  state 
church,  society  is  still  largely  organized  in 
the  form  of  churches.  Phili  thropy  works 
to  a  great  extent  through  the  churches,  and 
so,  in  some  measure,  does  education.  The 
social  shock  occasioned  by  the  departure  of 
religion  would,  therefore,  in  itself  be  severe. 
It  is  probably  the  apprehension  of  this  and 
of  the  social  and  political  consequences  of 
atheism,  not  less  than  the  influence  of  habit 
on  fashion,  that  leads  some,  who  themselves 
believe  no  longer,  to  support  the  church. 
Even  pronounced  Positivists  have  been  known 
to  give  money  for  this  purpose.  There  is  no 
saying,  indeed,  how  much  of  the  apparent 
church-going  and  contribution  to  church  offer- 
tories may  be  merely  politic,  or  how  hollow 
the  crust  of  profession  may  be.  But  taking 
the    lowest  reasonable    estimate   of   religious 


!.  !■ 


h''n 


200 


MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


\\ 


influence^  what  a  void  would  the  departure 
of  religion  and  the  closing  of  the  churches 
leave  in  life  I 

Again,  what  is  to  become  of  the  clergy? 
Here  is  a  great  body  of  the  very  flower  of  our 
morality,  as  well  as  of  our  culture,  committed 
to  a  calling  the  existence  of  which  is  bound 
up,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  certainly  with 
theism,  if  not  with  supernatural  religion. 
Supposing  religion  to  fail,  what  would  the 
clergy  do  ?  Would  they  transform  themselves 
into  teachers  of  ethics  and  social  guides? 
Would  tbey  starve?  Would  some  of  them 
be  drawn  into  revolution  and  thus  add  to  the 
seething  elements  of  disturbance?  A  celibate 
priest  is  well  prepared  for  adventure,  and  he 
may  hope,  however  vainly,  by  throwing  him- 
self into  a  social  revolution  to  found  his 
authority  anew.  Clergymen  read  and  think. 
Must  not  the  mental  state  of  some  of  them 
already  be  uneasy?  Is  not  Ritualism  itself 
in  some  cases  the  veil  of  doubt? 

We  talk  of  the  moral  law,  and  repeat  the 
famous  saying  of  Kant  that  the  two  things 
the   contemplation   of   which   filled   his   soul 


MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


201 


m 


with  awe,  were  the  moral  law  and  the  starry 
heavens.  This  implies  that  the  moral  law  is 
one,  and  that,  with  the  order  of  the  heavens, 
it  is  upheld  by  a  power  above  us.  What 
power  is  there  above  us  if  there  is  no  God 
or  we  have  no  proof  of  his  existence  ?  What 
is  the  moral  law?  There  are  certain  rules 
of  conduct  which  we  must  observe  in  order 
to  maintain  our  health,  bodily  and  mental,  to 
keep  our  affections  pure  and  warm,  and  to 
enable  us  to  earn  our  bread.  There  are  other 
rules  which  we  must  observe  in  order  to 
secure  our  domestic  happiness.  There  are 
also  rules  which  we  must  observe  in  order 
to  secure  our  welfare  as  members  of  society, 
of  the  commonwealth,  of  the  race.  These 
rules  play  into  each  other,  the  preservation 
of  our  health,  for  example,  being  essential  to 
our  right  temper  and  effective  action  in  all 
the  fields;  but  they  are  apparently  no  more 
one  or  capable  of  being  represented  as  a  self- 
existing  authority  transcending  all  individual 
interests,  than  our  care  for  our  own  comfort 
in  travelling  is  capable  of  being  represented 
as    one    with    our   necessary   respect   for   the 


202 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


M\ 


^i! 


comfort  of  our  fellow-travellers.  The  rudi- 
ments of  morality  have  been  shown  to  exist 
in  animals,  which  are  as  little  conscious  of 
Kant's  moral  law  as  they  are  of  the  grandeur 
which  fills  his  soul  with  awe  when  he  gazes 
on  the  starry  heavens. 

Evolution  clearly  is  not  moral.  There  is 
nothing  moral  in  the  struggle  for  existence 
or  in  natural  selection.  This  bold  evolution- 
ists, such  as  Haeckel,  frankly  admit.  An 
oiganism  does  not  regulate  its  own  stage  of 
evolution,  nor  does  it  select  itself  or  endow 
itself  with  the  strength  which  will  enable  it 
to  triumph  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  It 
is  not  answerable  for  its  own  propensities, 
which  may  be  those  of  a  philanthropist  or 
those  of  an  assassin;  of  a  human  being  or  of 
a  tiger.  If  it  survives  in  the  struggle  for 
existence  its  survival  must  be  that  of  the 
fittest,  and  therefore  its  sufficient  justifica- 
tion. The  ultimate  tendency  of  things  may 
be  against  it,  as  it  is  against  the  propensi- 
ties of  tigers,  those  of  the  human  tiger  per- 
haps, as  well  as  those  of  the  tiger  of  the 
jungle.     But  this  does  not  make  it  the  duty 


MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


203 


of  the  ofEensive  organism  to  cooperate  in  its 
own  elimination  or  to  refrain  from  gratifying 
its  natural  propensities  while  it  exists. 

So  far  as  social  morality  depends  on  the 
sanctity  of  human  life  or  of  humanity  gener- 
ally, it  can  hardly  fail  to  be  somewhat  threat- 
ened by  evolution,  which  levels  men  in  point 
of  origin,  and,  as  some  have  begun  to  be- 
lieve, in  point  of  destiny  with  other  animals. 
A  Grerman  physiologist  of  the  extreme  evo- 
lutionary school  said  to  Agassiz  that  the 
kingdom  of  science  would  have  really  come 
7/hen  you  could  go  out  and  shoot  a  man  for 
the  purpose  of  dissection.  "Of  course," 
replied  Agassiz,  "you  will  take  a  fine  speci- 
men, a  Goethe  or  a  Von  Humboldt."  We 
have  still,  no  doubt,  the  same  tribal  interest 
in  safeguarding  our  own  species,  and  this 
will  lead  us  to  hang  the  murderer  when  we 
catch  him.  But  the  murderer  who  by  his 
cu'aning  escapes  the  gallows,  and  perhaps 
comes  into  the  enjoyment  of  wealth  out  of 
which  the  life  which  he  has  taken  would 
have  kept  him,  —  why  should  he  feel  any 
more  remorse  than  he  would  have  felt  if  he 


IV?. 


sasmamma 


iff' 


204 


MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


had  taken  the  life  of  a  dog?  Let  us  sup- 
pose, for  instance,  that  the  life  of  a  child 
stands  between  a  needy  man  and  a  great 
estate;  that  he  puts  an  end  to  the  child's 
life  in  such  a  way  as  to  escape  detection, 
enters  into  the  estate,  lives  a  life  of  ease 
and  affluence  instead  of  struggling  for  bread, 
spends  his  money  well  and  enjoys  the  good- 
will of  the  people  among  whom  ho  lives; 
why  is  he  to  feel  remorse,  or,  if  he  has  a 
twinge  of  it,  why  is  he  not  to  repress  it  as 
he  would  any  other  unpleasant  emotion  or 
bodily  pain? 

We  speak  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  as 
our  great  security  for  mutual  benevolence 
and  our  high  induceiiient  to  virtuous  effort. 
But  is  it  an  absolute  certiiinty  that  men  are 
brothers?  Has  science  pronounced  decisively 
in  favour  of  the  unity  of  the  race?  Some 
men  of  science  certainly  have  pronounced  on 
the  other  side.  Again,  does  not  brotherhood 
imply  a  common  paternity,  and  where  is  the 
common  paternity  unless  we  have  all  a  father 
ill  God?  If  that  idea  is  set  aside,  are  we 
Aot  as  much  competitors  as  brothers? 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


205 


If  we  make  of  pleasure  our  ethical  criterion, 
how  are  we  to  distinguish  between  one  kind 
of  pleasure  and  another,  between  the  pleasure 
of  eating  the  bread  which  is  honestly  earned 
and  the  pleasure  of  eating  the  bread  which 
is  stolen?  Those  who  select  as  an  instance 
of  ethical  perfection  the  reciprocal  pleasure 
enjoyed  by  a  mother  and  the  child  at  her 
breast,  must  exclude  from  their  idea  of  per- 
fection anything  that  we  should  commonly 
call  moral,  since  there  is  nothing  .in  the 
suckling  of  a  human  infant  more  moral  than 
in  the  suckling  of  a  calf. 

Perfect  adaptation,  again,  would  appear 
to  fail  as  an  ethical  criterion  or  sanction. 
Adaptation  may  be,  and  often  is,  as  perfect 
in  the  case  of  means  adopted  to  do  ill  deeds 
as  in  the  case  of  means  adopted  to  do  good 
deeds.  Punctuality,  which  is  selected  as  an 
instance  of  adaptation,  and  on  that  account 
moral,  is  shown  as  much  in  keeping  a  crimi- 
nal assignation  as  in  keeping  an  appoint- 
ment for  the  best  of  objects. 

The  satisfaction  of  cooperating  with  the 
motive  power  of  evolution  is  tendered  as  an 


?    .   ( 


i:,; 


!  7  ■■ 


206 


MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


:  m 


,■'..« 


ethical  inducement.  It  would  hardly  present 
itself  so  to  beings  the  elimination  of  whom 
is  a  part  of  the  process.  Why  should  a 
mortal  sacrifice  his  enjoyments  to  the  ten- 
dencies, blind  tendencies  as  far  as  we 
know,  of  a  soulless  power  or  of  a  power 
which  to  us  manifests  no  soul?  If  the  pro- 
cess is,  as  an  evolutionary  philosopher  repre- 
sents it,  one  of  alternating  creation  and 
destructiouy  Prometheus  might  find  satisfac- 
tion rather  in  stopping  the  process  at  the 
recommencement  of  its  destructive  part  than 
in  devout  cooperation. 

The  authors  of  systems  of  moral  philosophy 
have  sought  to  discover  some  intellectual 
principle  from  which  all  moral  rules  could 
be  logically  deduced  and  the  apprehension  of 
which  would  constrain  all  men  to  be  moral. 
But  the  question  rem? ins,  why  men  who  do 
not  like  to  be  moral,  as  many  men  do  not, 
are  to  sacrifice  their  propensVaes  to  a  logi- 
cal deduction  from  an  intellectual  principle. 
Suppose  virtue  to  correspond,  as  Clarke  says, 
to  the  fitness  of  things,  why  is  Borgia  to 
prefer  the  fitness  of  things  to  the  enjoyment 


;'■    .( 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


207 


of  his  orgies  and  to  the  criminal  courses  by 
which  the  means  of  that  enjoyment  are  to  be 
obtained?  What  is  needed  to  influence  the 
actions  of  men  is  not  an  abstract  principle 
or  a  dennition,  but  a  motive.  It  is  by 
renewing  and  reinforcing  the  motive  power, 
not  by  defining  morality,  that  the  great  moral 
reforms  and  movements  have  been  made. 
Desire  of  health,  of  domestic  happiness,  of 
the  esteem  and  good-will  of  our  fallows,  of 
the  security  for  our  lives  and  property  which 
we  must  purchase  by  reciprocal  respect  for 
the  lives  and  property  of  others,  and  by 
obedience  to  the  laws,  are  motive  powers. 
The  necessity  of  obeying  the  will  of  God, 
with  eternal  reward  or  punishment  annexed, 
on  which  Paley  founds  the  inducement  to 
virtue,  provided  the  truth  of  theism  can  be 
proved,  is  a  motive  power  of  the  most  over- 
whelming kind.  Intellectual  perception  of  the 
fitness  of  things  is  not. 

Systems  of  ethics  founded  on  the  moral  taste 
fail  in  the  same  way.  They  cannot  show  any 
obligation  to  have  the  taste,  or,  in  its  absence,  to 
conform  to  the  peculiarity  of  those  who  have  it. 


f  \'\ 


U  tr 


I  m 


^ili 


%' 


208 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


Butler's  ethics  are  founded  on  the  system 
of  man's  inward  frame  and  the  supremacy 
of  conscience,  which  he  takes  to  be  manifest, 
in  that  system.  "Appetites,  passions,  aftec- 
tions,  and  the  principle  of  reflection,"  he 
says,  "considered  merely  as  the  several  parts 
of  our  inward  nature,  do  not  at  all  give  us 
an  idea  of  the  system  or  constitution  of  this 
nature;  because  the  constitution  is  formed 
by  a  somewhat  not  yet  taken  into  considera- 
tion, namely,  by  the  relations  which  these 
several  parts  have  to  each  other,  the  chief 
of  which  is  the  authority  of  reflection  or 
conscience."  Conscience,  he  says,  if  it  had 
power  as  it  has  authority,  would  rule  the 
world.  Whence,  then,  its  lack  of  power? 
Butler  manifestly  assumes  that  man's  inward 
frame  is  regulated  by  divine  ordinance,  and 
that  conscience  is  the  voice  of  God.  Unless 
it  be  the  voice  of  God,  it  is  nothing  more 
than  an  index,  formed  by  experience  and 
ratified  by  tradition,  to  the  course  of  indi- 
vidual action  which  is  best  for  the  commu- 
nity and  the  race.  If  a  man  cares  nothing  for 
the  community  or  the  race,    with   him   con- 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


209 


science  can  have  no  authority.  Such  a  man 
will  have  nothing  within  him  to  restrain 
him  from  sacrificing  the  happiress  and  lives 
of  other  men  without  measure  to  the  pro- 
motion of  his  own  interest  or  the  gratification 
of  his  passions.  His  only  restraints,  and  the 
only  restraints  of  thoroughly  selfish  men  in 
general,  will  be  social  influence  and,  in  the 
last  resort,  the  penal  law.  Social  influence 
will  be  strong  in  proportion  as  society  is 
well  compacted  and  as  the  man  is  by  nature 
sensitive  to  opinion  and  to  the  advantages 
of  kindly  relations  with  his  fellows.  Beyond 
this  there  remains,  to  control  the  wicked, 
nothing  but  the  penal  law,  and  the  penal 
law  may  be  evaded;  cupidi.y  and  passion 
will,  at  least,  often  hope  to  evade  it;  while 
a  man  of  Napoleon's  genius  and  fortunes 
may  raise  himself  entirely  above  it,  as  well 
as  above  the  pressure  of  opinion,  and  run, 
without  fear  of  punishment,  a  career  of 
slaughter  and  robbery  on  the  most  gigantic 
scale.  If  he  ever  feels  a  twinge  of  remorse, 
arising  from  early  lessons  or  the  force  of 
habit,  there  seems  to  be  no  assignable  reason 


P,J. 

i' 

■':  'V  W 

S,::IS' 


•Iff 


4<    ■:-'. 


It 

f  ( 


1  111 


210 


MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


why  he  should  not  stifle  it  just  as  he  would 
assuage  any  bodily  ache  or  pain. 

In  such  action  as  is  heroic,  or  involves  great 
sacrifice  of  self,  especially,  there  appears  to 
be  an  element  hardly  separable  from  theism, 
whatever  allowance  we  may  make  for  the 
warmth  of  social  feeling  and  what  has  been 
called  the  enthusiasm  of  humanity.  Any- 
thing short  of  life  perhaps  we  can  imagine  a 
man  would  sacrifice  from  his  love  of  his  fel- 
lows and  in  the  hope  of  winning  their  love; 
but  the  sacrifice  of  life  seems  to  imply  the  ex- 
istence of  a  hope  beyond.  One  philosopher 
has  even  found  theism  in  the  devotion  of  the 
private  soldier  who  is  content,  with  almost 
as  little  expectation  of  individual  glory  as 
of  profit,  to  give  his  life  to  the  common 
cause. 

A  great  evolutionist  deduced  from  evo- 
lution the  negation  of  free  will  and  the 
automatism  of  man.  The  discovery  would 
have  been  an  end  of  anything  that  could 
properly  be  called  morality.  The  deduction, 
however,  supposing  it  logical,  would  be  fatal 
surely,    not    to    free   will,    but   to  evolution. 


>i:;^;,! 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


211 


That  man  has  power  over  his  own  actions, 
however  limited  or  qualified  that  power  may 
be,  and  by  whatever  name  you  may  choose  to 
call  it,  with  the  responsibility  attendant,  is 
surely  a  fact  of  human  nature  no  less  unde- 
niable than  the  existence  of  any  one  of  our 
bodily  senses.  We  may  puzzle  ourselves  over 
it  without  end,  but  no  one  ever  practically 
denies  it  either  in  his  reflections  on  his  own 
actions  or  in  forming  his  opinion  on  the 
actions  of  his  neighbours.  The  whole  course 
of  life,  of  society,  of  law,  and  of  government, 
implies  it.  Its  presence  has  hitherto  repelled 
the  attempt  to  construct  a  science  of  history 
analogous  to  the  physical  sciences.  If  any- 
body has  ever  persuaded  himself,  nobody  has 
ever  acted  on  the  persuasion,  that  the  relation 
of  the  inducement  to  the  action,  in  him  or 
in  his  neighbours,  is  as  the  impact  of  one 
billiard  ball  on  the  other.  The  feeling  of 
free  will,  indeed,  may  be  roughly  described 
as  our  sense,  given  us  by  consciousness,  of 
the  difference  between  physical  and  moral 
causation. 

Mr.     Cotter    Morison,    a    man    himself    of 


Iftr 


I  i 


tii' 


212 


MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


moral  sensibility  as  well  as  the  highest 
cultivation,  said  that  the  sooner  the  idea  of 
moral  responsibility  was  got  rid  of  the  better 
it  would  be  for  society  and  moral  education, 
and  that  while  virtue  might,  and  possibly 
would,  bring  happiness  to  the  virtuous 
man,  to  the  immoral  and  the  selfish  virtue 
would  probably  be  the  most  distasteful  or 
even  painful  thing  in  their  experience,  while 
vice  would  give  them  unmitigated  pleasure.^ 
His  method  of  moral  reform  is  the  elimina- 
tion or  suppression  of  the  bad.  But  if  the 
bad  happen  to  be  the  stronger  or  the  more 
cunning,  what  is  to  prevent  their  eliminating 
or  suppressing  the  good  ?  What  is  to  prevent 
their  doing  this,  not  only  with  a  clear  con- 
science, but  with  a  glow  of  self-approbation? 
The  author  of  Modern  Thinkers^  bravely 
pushing  agnostic  priciples  to  their  extreme 
conclusion,  says:  — 


"  It  is  generally  believed  to  be  moral  to  tell  the  truth, 
and  immoral  to  lie.  And  yet  it  would  be  difficult  to 
prove  that  nature  prefers  the  true  to  the  false.     Every- 

1  See  The  Service  of  Man,  by  James  Cotter  Morison,  pp. 
293-314. 


^U''^.\' 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


213 


ghest 
ea  of 
)etter 
ition, 
ssibly 
•tuous 
virtue 
iul   or 
while 
^sure.^ 
imina- 
if  the 
)  more 
nating 
:>revent 
ir  con- 
Dation  ? 
bravely 
xtrenie 


he  truth, 
ifficult  to 
Every- 

rison,  pp. 


wh«.-e  she  makes  the  false  impression  first,  and  only 
after  years,  or  thousands  of  years,  do  we  become  able 
to  detect  her  in  her  lies.  .  .  .  Nature  endows  almost 
every  animal  with  the  faculty  of  deceit  in  order  to  aid 
it  in  escaping  from  the  brute  force  of  its  superiors.  Why, 
then,  should  not  man  be  endowed  with  the  faculty  of 
lying  when  it  is  to  his  interest  to  appear  wise  concern- 
ing matters  of  which  he  is  ignorant?  Lying  is  often  a 
refuge  to  the  weak,  a  stepping-stone  to  power,  a  ground 
of  reverence  toward  those  who  live  by  getting  credit  for 
knowing  what  they  do  not  know.  No  one  doubts  that  it 
is  right  for  the  maternal  partridge  to  feign  lameness,  a 
broken  wing  or  leg,  in  order  to  conceal  her  young  in 
flight,  by  causing  the  pursuer  to  suppose  he  can  more 
easily  catch  her  than  her  offspring.  From  whence,  then, 
in  nature,  do  we  derive  the  fact  that  a  human  being  may 
not  properly  tell  an  untruth  with  the  same  motive?  Our 
early  histories,  sciences,  poetries,  and  theologies  are  all 
false,  yet  they  comprehend  by  far  the  major  part  of 
human  thought.  Priesthoods  hav  ruled  the  world  by 
deceiving  our  tender  souls,  and  yet  they  command  our 
most  enduring  reverence.  Where,  then,  do  we  discover 
that  any  law  of  universal  nature  prefers  truth  to  false- 
hood, any  more  than  oxygen  to  nitrogen,  or  alkalies  to 
salts?  So  habituated  have  we  become  to  assume  that 
truth-telling  is  a  virtue,  that  nothing  is  more  difficult 
then  to  tell  how  we  came  to  assume  it,  nor  is  it  easy  of 
proof  that  it  is  a  virtue  in  an  unrestricted  sense.  What 
would  be  thought  of  the  military  strategist  who  made 
no  feints,  of  the  advertisement  that  contained  no  lie,  of 
the  business  man  whose  polite  suavity  covered  no  false- 
hood? 


214 


MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


m,. 


it  • « 


"  Inasmuch  as  all  moral  rules  are  in  the  first  instance 
impressed  by  the  strong,  the  dominant,  the  matured,  and 
the  successful  upon  the  weak,  the  crouching,  the  infantile, 
and  thu  servile,  it  would  not  be  strange  if  a  close  analysis 
and  a  minute  historical  research  should  concur  in  prov- 
ing that  all  moral  rules  are  doctrines  established  by  the 
strong  for  the  government  of  the  weak.  It  is  invariably 
the  strong  who  require  the  weak  to  tell  the  truth,  and 
always  to  promote  some  interest  of  the  strong.  .  .  . 

" '  Thou  shalt  not  steal  *  is  a  moral  precept  invented 
by  the  strong,  the  matured,  the  successful,  and  by  them 
impressed  upon  the  weak,  the  infantile,  and  the  failures 
in  life's  struggle,  as  all  criminals  are.  For  nowhere  in 
the  world  has  the  sign  ever  been  blazoned  on  the  shop 
doors  of  a  successful  business  man,  •  Closed  bcicause  the 
proprietor  prefers  crime  to  industry.*  Universal  society 
might  be  pictured,  for  the  illustration  of  this  feature  of 
the  moral  code,  as  consisting  of  two  sets  of  swine,  one  of 
which  is  in  the  clover,  and  the  other  is  out.  The  swine 
that  are  in  the  clover  ginmt,  *  Thou  shalt  not  steal ;  put 
up  the  bars.'  The  swine  that  are  out  of  the  clover  grunt, 
'Did  you  make  the  clover?  let  down  the  bars.'  'Thou 
shalt  not  steal  *  's  a  maxim  impressed  by  property  holders 
upon  non-proj-erty  holders.  It  is  ncrt.  only  conceivable, 
but  it  is  absolute  verity,  that  a  sufficient  deprivation,  of 
property,  and  force,  and  delicacy  of  temptation,  would 
compel  every  one  who  utters  it  to  steal,  if  he  could  get 
an  opportunity.  In  a  philosophic  sense,  therefore,  it  is 
not  a  universal,  but  a  class,  law;  its  prevalence  and 
obedience  indicate  that  the  property  holders  rule  society, 
which  is  itself  an  index  of  advance  toward  civilization. 
No  one  would  say  that  if  a  lion  lay  gorged  with  his  ex- 


MOHAUTY  AND   TUEISM 


215 


stance 
id,  and 
'antile, 
iialyrtii* 
11  prov- 
by  the 
ariably 
th,  and 

iivented 
)y  them 
failures 
^here  in 
he  shop 
ftuse  the 
I  society 
jature  of 
e,  one  of 
he  swine 
leal;  put 
er  grunt, 
•    'Thou 
y  holders 
iceivable, 
vation  of 
n,  would 
could  get 
fore,  it  is 
ence  and 
e  society, 
vilization. 
th  his  ex- 


cessive feast  amidst  the  scattered  carcass  of  a  deer,  and  a 
jaguar  or  a  hyena  stealthily  bore  away  a  haunch  thereof, 
the  act  of  the  hyena  was  less  virtuous  than  that  of  the 
lion.  How  does  the  case  of  two  bushmen,  between  whom 
the  same  incident  occurs,  ditfer  from  that  of  the  two 
quadrupeds?  Each  is  doing  that  which  tends  in  the 
highest  degree  to  his  own  preservation,  and  it  may  be 
assumed  that  the  party  against  whom  the  spoliation  is 
committed  is  not  injured  at  all  by  it.  Among  many 
savage  tribes  theft  is  taught  as  a  virtue,  and  detection 
is  punished  as  a  crime.  .  .  .  Having  control  of  the 
forces  of  society,  the  strong  can  always  legislate,  or 
order,  or  wheedle,  or  preach,  or  assume  other  people's 
money  and  land  out  of  their  possession  into  their  own, 
by  methods  which  are  not  known  as  stealing,  since  in- 
stead of  violating  the  law  they  inspire  and  create  the  law. 
But  if  the  under  dog  in  the  social  fight  runs  away  with  a 
bone  in  violation  of  superior  force,  the  top  dog  runs  after 
him  bellowing,  '  Thou  shalt  not  steal,'  and  all  the  other 
top  dogs  unite  in  bellowing, '  This  is  divine  law  and  not 
dog  law';  the  verdict  of  the  top  dog,  so  far  as  liw,  re- 
ligion, and  other  forms  of  brute  force  are  concerned, 
settles  the  question.  But  philosophy  will  see  in  this 
contest  of  antagonistic  forces,  a  mere  play  of  opposing 
elements,  in  which  larceny  is  an  incident  of  social  weak- 
ness and  unfitness  to  survive,  just  as  debility  and  leprosy 
are;  and  would  as  soon  assume  a  divine  command, 
•Thou  shalt  not  break  out  in  boils  and  sores,'  to  the 
weakling  or  leper,  as  one  of  *Thou  shalt  not  steal'  to 
the  failing  struggler  for  subsistence.  So  far  as  the  irre- 
sistible promptings  of  nature  may  be  said  to  constitute  a 
divine  law,  there  are  really  two  laws.    The  law  to  him 


216 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


I  il 


Illllilii 


MM 

it 


I.  >, 


who  will  be  injured  by  stealing  is,  'Thou  shalt  not  steal,* 
meaning  thereby,  'Thou  slialt  not  suffer  another  to  steal 
from  you.'  The  law  to  him  who  cannot  survive  without 
stealing  is  simply, '  Thou  shalt,  in  stealing,  avoid  being 
detected.' 

"  So  the  laws  forbidding  unchastity  were  framed  by 
those  who,  in  the  earlier  periods  of  civilization,  could 
afford  to  own  women,  for  the  protection  of  their  property 
rights  in  them,  against  the  poor  who  could  not.  .  .  . 
We  do  not  mean,  by  this  course  of  reasoning,  to  imply 
that  the  strong  in  society  can,  or  ought  to  be,  governed 
by  the  weak :  that  is  neither  possible,  nor,  if  possible, 
would  it  be  any  improvement.  We  only  assert  that 
moral  precepts  are  largely  the  selfish  maxims  expressive 
of  the  will  of  the  ruling  forces  in  society,  those  who  have 
health,  wealth,  knowledge,  and  power,  and  are  designed 
wholly  for  their  own  protection  and  the  maintenance  of 
their  power.  They  represent  the  view  of  the  winning 
side,  in  the  struggle  for  subsistence,  while  the  true  in- 
terior law  of  nature  would  represent  a  varying  combat  in 
which  two  laws  would  appear,  viz. :  that  known  as  the 
moral  or  majority  law,  and  that  known  as  the  immoral  or 
minority  law,  which  commands  a  violation  of  the  other."  * 

Happily,  the  strong  and  the  weak  are  not 
two  distinct  sets  of  men.  They  are  blended 
together  in  society,  by  the  common  interests 
and  general  opinion  of  which  the  strong  in 
the  exercise   of  their  strength  are  practically 

1  Modern  Thinkers,  by  Van  Buren  Denslow,  pp.  240-246. 


MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


217 


b  steal,' 
to  steal 
without 
i  being 

,med  by 
n,  could 
property 

lOt.   .    •   • 

to  imply 
governed 
possible, 
sert  that 
■xpressive 
who  have 
designed 
enance  of 
5  winning 
e  true  in- 
combat  in 
wn  as  the 
mmoral  or 
le  other."* 

are   not 

blended 

interests 

strong  in 

ractically 

p.  240-246. 


controlled.  Men  who  are  strong  in  one  way 
are  very  often  weak  in  others ;  men  who  are 
weak  in  one  way  are  strong  in  others  ;  and 
there  are  innumerable  gradations  of  every  kind 
of  strength. 

This,  however,  is  free  thought  expressed 
with  a  vigour  and  frankness  for  which  in- 
quirers after  truth  will  be  thankful.  It  is 
curious,  as  an  indication  of  the  tendencies  of 
the  philosophy  to  which  it  relates,  and  as  a  re- 
ply to  the  historical  scepticism  which  refuses 
to  believe  that  the  teaching  of  the  Sophists 
really  was  what  it  is  represented  to  have 
been  by  Socrates  or  Plato.  It  would  also 
seem  to  be  a  conclusive  answer  to  those 
who  utterly  deride  the  apprehension  of  a 
moral  interregnum,  and  feel  confident  that 
society  is  going  to  sail,  without  interruption 
or  disturbance  of  its  rule  of  conduct,  out  of 
the  zone  of  theistic  into  that  of  scientific 
morality.  It  suggests  that  between  one  state 
and  the  other  there  may  be  an  interval  in 
which  the  question  will  be  not  so  much  be- 
tween the  moral  and  the  immoral,  as  between 
the  "top  and  the  under  dog." 


218 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


*,■'.     ■  .1 


The  Marquis  of  Steyne  is  an  organism, 
and,  like  all  other  organisms,  so  long  as  he 
succeeds  in  maintaining  himself  against  com- 
peting organisms,  is  able  to  make  good  his 
title  to  existence  under  the  law  of  natural 
selection.  He  has  his  pleasures;  they  are 
not  those  of  a  St.  Paul,  or  a  Shakespeare,  or 
a  Wilberforce,  but  they  are  his.  They  make 
him  happy,  according  to  the  only  measure  of 
happiness  which  he  can  conceive;  and  if  he 
is  cautious,  as  a  sagacious  voluptuary  will 
be,  they  need  not  diminish  his  vitality,  they 
may  even  increase  it  both  in  duration  and 
intensity,  though  they  may  play  havoc  with 
the  welfare  of  a  number  of  victims  and 
dependants.  He  may  successively  seduce  a 
score  of  women  without  bad  consequences  to 
himself.  Why  is  he  doing  wrong?  In  the 
name  of  what  do  you  peremptorily  summon 
him  to  return  to  the  path  of  virtue?  In  the 
name  of  altruistic  pleasure?  He  happens  to 
be  one  of  those  organisms  which  are  not 
capable  of  it.  In  the  name  of  a  state  of 
society  which  is  to  come  into  existence  long 
after  he  has  mouldered  to  dust  in  the  family 


:Si 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


219 


mausoleum  of  the  Gaunts  ?  His  reply  will  be 
that  as  a  sensible  man  he  lives  for  the  present, 
not  for  a  future  in  which  he  will  have  no 
share.  Suppose  you  could  induce  him  to  try 
a  course  of  virtue,  or  of  altruism  if  the  term 
is  more  scientific,  what  in  his  case  would  be 
the  practical  result?  Would  it  not  be  a 
painful  conflict  between  passion  and  con- 
science, oi  perhaps,  in  the  terms  of  the 
now  current  philosophy,  between  presented 
sensations  on  the  one  hand,  and  represented 
or  re-represented  sensations  on  the  other? 
Is  it  not  probable  that  he  would  end  his 
days  before  that  conflict  had  been  brought 
to  a  close?  Its  fruits,  however  imperfect, 
would,  of  course,  be  both  happy  and  precious 
in  the  estimation  of  theism;  but  in  the  esti- 
mation of  any  ethical  philosophy  founded  on 
pleasure  and  pain,  what  could  they  be  but 
pleasure,  unquestionable  pleasure,  lost,  and 
pain,  pain  of  a  distressing  kind,  incurred? 
So  with  other  organisms,  which,  as  thorough- 
going evolutionism  would  lead  us  to  think, 
are  pursuing  their  oongenial,  though  conven- 
tionally reprobated,  walks  of  life.     The  assas- 


■plf''?f 

I 

■  1                      .^ 

'     ; 

;■    :! 

1,t  '■. 


fi  '.  '.'  ' 


fl  I 


U ' 


l:.^ 


^ri 

™f 

■ill 

'•Jil 

Mil 


J'      I 


.;;si 


220 


MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


sin,  the  robber,  and  the  sharper  have  their 
status  in  nature,  as  well  as  any  other  members 
of  the  predatory  tribes.  It  is  laid  down  that 
the  life  and  interest  of  the  social  organism 
must  rank  above  the  lives  and  interests  of  its 
component  particles,  the  individual  men,  and 
form  the  measure  of  their  desires  and  actions. 
This,  however,  would  seem  to  be  an  arbitrary 
assumption,  and  one  on  which  morality  can- 
not be  firmly  founded.  Can  the  term  "organ- 
ism "  itself  be  applied  to  society  otherwise 
than  in  a  metaphorical  or  imperfect  sense?  Of 
the  particles  of  which  society  consists,  each, 
unlike  the  particles  of  a  true  organism,  has  a 
consciousness  and  a  unit  of  its  own.  Further 
enforcement  at  least  is  needed. 

Apprehension  of  a  temporary  disturbance 
of  social  order,  however,  or  even  of  an 
ethical  interregnum,  is  not  ourliighest  motive 
for  desiring  to  know  whether  the  universe 
is  guided  by  a  Providence  or  borne  blindly 
on  by  a  material  evolution,  and  whether 
there  is  or  is  not  a  sup-eme  power  on  the 
side  of  virtue.  No  question  surely  can  be 
more  practical  than  these,  unless  we  are  con- 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


221 


tent  to  be  as  the  beasts  that  perish;  a  fate 
to  which  probably  few  are  deliberately  re- 
signed, however,  amidst  the  business  or  the 
enjoyments  of  life  we  may  put  aside  the 
thought  of  our  mortality. 

In  what  position  then,  since  the  discovery 
of  L /olution  or,  as  we  should  rather  say,  to 
avoid  building  too  much  on  a  particular 
theory,  since  the  recent  revelations  of  sci- 
ence, is  the  theistic  hypothesis  left? 

Clearly,  there  is  an  end  of  our  faith,  so  far 
as  cosmogony  is  concerned,  in  the  sacred 
books  of  the  Hebrews,  from  which  our  no- 
tions of  creation  and  the  Creator  have 
hitherto  been  largely  derived.  Those  books 
must  now  be  placed  on  the  same  shelf  with 
the  sacred  books  of  other  races.  They  are 
superior  to  their  fellows  no  doubt,  not  only 
in  loftiness  of  imagination,  but  in  compara- 
tive approach  to  scientific  truth,  especially  in 
regard  to  the  great  fact  of  the  unity  of  crea- 
tion, which  astronomy  and  spectrum-analy- 
sis have  confirmed.  It  is  in  virtue  of  this 
superiority  that  they  have   so   long  retained 


^'■ij 


222 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


I 


/ 


^    ■     ^  1: 

*     ■ .      .  ■ 

'   ■■  ■  ■       1 

^■'■v':     1 

their  hold  upon  our  minds.  But  their  narra- 
tive of  creation  is  hopelessly  at  variance 
with  scientific  fact,  while  the  authority  of 
some  of  them  as  the  alleged  works  of  Moses, 
even  if  it  could  give  them  a  title  to  accept- 
ance as  records  of  events  anterior  to  the 
existence  of  man,  has  been  totally  over- 
thrown. The  poetry  of  the  Hebrew  books 
will  never  die.  Of  their  cosmogony  we 
must,  once  for  all,  clear  our  minds.  We  are 
in  the  position  of  the  philosophers  of  Greece 
when,  having  emancipated  themselves  from 
the  legendary  cosmogony  of  the  polytheistic 
religion  of  ^,he  sLate,  they  faced  with  open 
minds  the  problem  of  existence. 

With  belief  in  a  first  cause  the  theory  of 
evolution  need  not  interfere.  Evolution  can- 
not have  evolved  itself.  It  is  a  mode  or 
process,  not  a  creative  farce.  Some  power 
there  must  have  been,  if  we  can  trust  the 
indications  of  our  intelligence  on  such  a 
subject,  to  set  evolution  on  foot  and  to 
direct  it  in  its  course.  Those  who  think  to 
account  for  all  things  by  the  hypothesis  of 
a  vast  alternation   between  homogeneity  and 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


223 


heterogeneity  stand  in  need  of  a  prime 
motor;  otherwise,  whichever  of  the  alternate 
processes  they  take  postulates  the  other  as 
its  antecedent,  and  so  backwards  to  infinity. 
In  plain  language,  they  must  have  something 
to  set  the  see-saw  going.  If  this  objection 
is  said  to  be  rather  metaphysical,  the  answer 
is  that  a  hypothesis,  before  it  can  be  applied 
to  facts,  must  be  shown  to  be  intelligible 
and  tenable  in  itself;  a  condition  not  ful- 
filled by  a  hypothesis  of  original  alternation. 

It  may  be  that  evolution,  as  some  say, 
gives  us  a  worthier  idea  of  the  majesty  of 
the  Deity,  who,  instead  of  perpetual  inter- 
vention, has,  once  for  all,  commanded  his 
agents,  and  endowed  them  with  the  power, 
to  work  out  the  universal  plan.  At  the 
same  time  the  Deity  seems  to  be  removed  to 
an  immeasurable  distance  from  us.  It  is 
difficult  to  understand  how  we  can  retain 
the  practice  of  prayer,  at  least  for  anything 
material.  Belief  in  special  providence  evolu- 
tion seems  absolutely  to  preclude. 

The  old  proof  of  the  existence  of  a  Deity, 
which  satisfied  Paley  and  the  authors  of  the 


M 


224 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


J    -'•    !' 

h''^ 

is 

h''!' 

*  « 

wHa.    -  1- 

Hi'? 

Si'^' 

W 

'('.•■  * 


.if..- 


Bridgewater  treatises,  was  the  design  assumed 
to  be  visible  in  creation.  But  what  is  visi- 
ble in  creation  is  not  design;  it  is  only 
adaptation,  from  which  we  are  not  warranted 
in  directly  inferring  design.  Adapted  to 
each  other  things  must  have  been;  otherwise 
the  world  could  not  have  come  into  exist- 
ence, or,  when  it  had  come  into  existence, 
have  held  together.  The  arrangement  of  the 
vertebrae  is  necessary  to  the  support  of  the 
skull.  The  position  of  the  pebble  beneath  is 
necessary  to  the  support  of  the  pebble  above, 
though  we  do  not  take  the  adaptation  for 
a  proof  of  design.  We  have  no  other  world 
to  compare  with  this,  and,  therefore,  no 
means  of  learning  what  could  come  by  chance 
or  blind  evolution  and  what  could  not. 
Paley's  man  who  finds  the  watch  is  able  to 
compare  it  with  un wrought,  matter.  He 
knows  that  human  artificers  exist.  He  is  a 
man  himself  and  can  recognize  the  work  of 
his  fellow. 

The  argument  from  design  has  been  turned 
on  the  upholders  by  the  opponents  of  theism. 
It  has   been  said  that  contrivance  is  human 


;i:uf 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


^wi> 


and  inconsistent  with  our  ideas  of  omnipo- 
tence, which  would  pi./duce  perfection  at 
once  by  fiat.  But  here  we  are  simply  beyond 
the  range  of  our  intelligence.  We  cannot 
divine  which  way  Deity  would  take  to  it? 
ends.  There  is  nothing  repugnant  to  reason 
in  the  belief  that  what  presents  itself  to  our 
minds  as  effort  and  a  struggle  towards  per- 
fection, rather  than  perfection  by  fiat,  may 
be  the  course  chosen  by  the  Master  of  the 
universe  and  form  its  law.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  evident  that  Paley's  analogy 
breaks  down  again  in  this  respect,  that  God 
is  not  like  a  mechanic,  showing  his  skill  by 
his  handling  of  matter,  which,  with  its  quali- 
ties and  its  resistance,  is  given  to  him  from 
without.  He  is  himself  the  Creator  of  the 
matter  with  which  he  deals. 

Science,  it  is  true,  frequently  uses  teleo- 
logical  language,  language  such  as  implies 
design.  But  from  this  little  can  be  inferred, 
except  that  our  established  phraseology  is 
theistic  and  that  science  falls  involuntarily 
into  the  use  of  the  familiar  terms. 

From  mere  inspection  of  the  universe  we 


-—^mm 


226 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


can  only  infer  the  existence  of  such  a  Deity 
as  the  universe,  including  the  nature  of 
man,  discloses.  This  seems  to  be  justly 
urged  by  Hume;  and  a  mere  inspection  of 
the  universe,  at  least  of  our  part  of  it,  can 
hardly  be  said  to  disclose  a  moral  Creator. 
The  Creator  disclosed  is  one  who  sends  not 
only  his  sunshine  and  his  rain,  but  his  earth- 
quakes, his  plagues,  and  his  famines,  alike 
upon  the  just  and  the  unjust;  who  takes 
away  by  death  the  good  man  from  the  house- 
hold which  loves  him  and  depends  on  him  for 
bread,  as  well  as  the  wicked  man  from  his 
den  of  crime ;  who,  both  among  human  beings 
and  among  brutes,  seems  to  scatter  pain  and 
misery  broadcast.  What  we  see  and  experi- 
ence may  be,  and  probably  is,  but  a  faint 
glimpse  of  the  universal  plan.  But  from 
what  we  see  and  experience  the  combination 
of  omnipotence  with  beneficence,  an  we  con- 
ceive the  one  or  the  other,  cannot  be  inferred. 
For  their  ultimate  union  we  must  look  behind 
the  veil.  True,  human  effort  is  repaid,  but 
it  is  human. 
In  our  own  planet  waste,  wreck,  and  abor- 


MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


227 


tion  hold  divided  empire  with  economy,  per- 
fection, and  fruitfuhiess.  In  our  satellite, 
the  telescope  tells  us,  they  reign  alone. 
Nothing  apparently  warrants  us  in  assuming 
that  the  character  of  the  Creator  is  reflected 
by  one  side  of  creation,  not  by  the  other. 

Pessimism  may  be  said  to  be  the  reverie 
of  disappointment  and  satiety,  with  an  infu- 
sio'i  of  Byronic  sentiment  and  of  the  melan- 
choly of  Schopenhauer  and  Leopardi.  But  it 
has,  at  all  events,  been  able  to  show  that 
the  theological  optimism  against  which  it 
revolts  is  only  less  irrational  than  itself. 
It  has,  at  all  events,  put  an  end  to  the 
attempts  of  the  complacent  optimist  to  vindi- 
cate the  Creator  and  establish  the  theistic 
h3rpothesi8  by  representing  pain,  suffering, 
and  evil  generally  as  mere  negation.  To 
give  that  pious  legerdemain  its  death-blow 
a  Lisbon  earthquake,  a  famine,  or  a  pes- 
tilence is  not  needed.  A  toothache  will 
sufiice. 

Neither  from  sense  nor  from  science  can 
we  be  said  to  have  actual  proof  of  the 
existence     of     intelligence    other    than    our 


'vm' 


M't- 


22.' 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


;!;r 


own,  or  even  of  any  life  other  than  that 
which  exists  on  our  planet.  Such  is  the 
fact.  But  the  mere  statement  of  it  seems  to 
carry  the  conviction  that  the  range  of  our 
senses,  even  with  the  aid  of  science  and  all 
its  instruments,  must  be  narrow.  It  is  in- 
conceivable that  we  should  be  the  sole  con- 
scious denizens  of  the  universe.  As  has 
been  said  before,  there  is  no  reason  for  the 
presumption  that  the  information  of  our 
senses,  or  of  science,  which  draws  its  know- 
ledge from  the  senses,  is  exhaustive.  We  are 
in  a  universe  our  knowledge  of  which  is 
probably  mere  purblindness.  Gravitation  is 
only  a  fact  observed  but  unexplained.  Mind 
itself,  as  it  is  in  us,  may  not  be  ultimate. 

It  seems  impossible  to  imagine  inat  our  intel- 
ligence, whatever  the  mode  of  its  development, 
is  without  an  intelligent  author. 

Science  shows  that  the  universe,  so  far  as 
it  falls  within  our  vision,  is  pervaded  and 
ruled  by  a  single  power,  which,  as  its  opera- 
tions reveal  themselves  to  our  minds,  we 
cannot  help  divining  to  be  a  mind.  Mono- 
theism  is   at  all   events    perfectly   consistent 


i 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


229 


with  the  results  of  physical  science;  while 
with  polytheism  science  has  done  away. 
Hence,  science  and  religion,  even  the  most 
fervent  religion,  have  been  able  to  dwell 
together  in  the  intellects  of  Newton  and 
Faraday. 

In  metaphysical  arguments  there  is  little 
comfort.  Anselm  thought  that  he  had  proved 
the  existence  of  a  Deity  by  the  argument 
that  our  notion  of  the  Deity  was  perfection 
and  that  perfection  implied  existence.  Des- 
ciirte^j  reproduced  the  argument  substantially 
under  u  different  form.  Existence  must  enter 
into  our  notion  of  a  centaur  or  a  griffin,  and 
is,  in  those  eases,  notional  only,  affording  no 
proof  that  the  thing  of  which  we  think  is 
real.  To  all  proofs  of  the  existence  of  God 
derived  from  supposed  mental  necessity,  it 
seems  to  be  a  sufficient  answer  that  belief 
in  God  has  been,  and  is,  absent  from  some 
minds  otherwise  sound  and  normal.  These 
seem  like  relics  of  the  scholastic  fancy  that 
the  mind  is  a  casket  containing  in  itself 
knowledge  about  the  universe  which  is  ca- 
pable  of   being  educed  by   a  logical  process 


»' * 


l^<tt 


230 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


';) 


m  :■: 


apart  from  observation  of  the  universe  itself. 
Nothing  metaphysical  has  ever  taken  much 
hold  on  general  intelligence  or  exerted  much 
influence  on  practical  faith.  A  fervent  reli- 
gion, metaphysically  kindled,  or  even  a  lively 
conception  of  the  character  of  the  Deity  de- 
rived from  metaphysical  speculation,  it  would 
surely  be  hard  to  find. 

Intuitionists  would  settle  the  question  by 
laying  it  down  that  there  are  always  present 
in  intelligence,  whether  developed  or  nas- 
cent, three  ideas;  consciousness  of  the  world, 
consciousness  of  self,  and  consciousness  of 
God.  As  has  been  already  said,  there  are 
men  who,  if  they  know  the  contents  of  their 
own  intelligence,  are  without  a  consciousness 
of  God.  Can  this  intuition  of  a  Deity  be 
proved  to  exist  in  the  mind  ^uite  indepen- 
dently of  any  notion  derived  from  without 
either  through  education  or  tradition?  If  it 
can,  we  may  accept  it  as  decisive.  If  it  can- 
not, its  testimony  fails.  We  need  not  go  on 
to  ask  what  sort  of  Deity  it  is  that  is  thus 
intuitively  revealed,  that  of  Jehovah,  that  of 
Jupiter,    that    of    Allah,    that    of    the    All- 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


231 


itself, 
much 
.  much 
it  reli- 
L  lively 
ity  de- 
b  would 

tion  by 
present 
or    nas- 
3  world, 
mess   of 
lere   are 
of  their 
iousness 
)eity  be 
indepen- 
without 
If  it 
f  it  can- 
Dt  go  on 
is  thus 
that  of 
,he    All- 


Father  presented  by  the  teachings  of  Jesus, 
an  amalgam  of  them  all,  or  a  cold  and  filmy 
abstraction. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
as  to  the  historical  importance  of  the  reli- 
gious sense  in  man,  or  as  to  the  failure  of 
some  of  the  attempts  of  evolutionists  to 
wrest  the  history  of  religion  into  conformity 
with  their  system.  The  source  of  religion 
has  been  found  in  dreams  about  departed 
chieftains.  It  would  be  curious  to  see  the 
connection  traced  between  such  dreams  and 
the  religion  of  Jesus,  or  that  of  Bacon,  Pas- 
cal, Butler,  and  Newton.  Did  all  primeval 
men  dream  about  departed  chieftains?  How 
did  the  religious  tendency  become  universal? 
How  could  a  dream  lead  even  to  the  most 
primitive  forms  of  worship,  such  as  the 
adoration  of  the  sun?  That  religion  began 
ill  fetish-worship  is  a  theory  held  by  phi- 
lology to  be  precarious.  That  its  primitive 
form  was  a  worship  of  the  powers  of  nature, 
especially  of  those  which  most  influence  the 
life  of  man,  and  of  the  sun  above  all,  may 
be  taken  to  be  true;   but  this  accounts  only 


Ul  "^'^r 


mi 


gm 


232 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


t.-ts      I 


'  ■■'■  ■  I'- 
•  :     I' 


I' '  ■ 


for  the  selection  of  objects,  not  for  the  exist- 
ence of  the  sentiment  itself.  We  can  hardly 
imagine  that  the  grandeur  and  powers  of 
nature  produce  any  sentiment  of  awe  or  ten- 
dency to  worship  in  animals.  Neither  in  the 
primitive  direction  of  the  religious  sentiment 
nor  in  its  aberrations,  brutish  or  cruel  as 
some  of  them  were,  is  there  anything  to 
repel  the  suggestion  that  it  had  its  source 
in  reality  and  betokens  a  connection  between 
humanity  and  the  Spirit  of  the  Universe. 

Paley  may  have  been  right  in  saying  that 
the  Deity  could  reveal  himself  only  in  mira- 
cle. If  he  does  not  reveal  he  may  yet  mani- 
fest himself  without  miracle  through  human 
nature  and  history,  through  the  discoveries 
of  science  and  by  other  than  supernatural 
means.  If  there  is  a  Deity,  the  reasonable 
presumption  surely  is  that  he  will  manifest 
himself  to  creatures  capable  of  receiving  the 
manifestation.  His  counsel  may  be  that 
instead  of  his  revealing  himself  to  us,  we 
should  feel  after  him  and  find  him. 

Rational  theology  has,  perhaps,  hardly  taken 
sufficient  notice  of  our  sense  of  beauty  in  its 


m 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


233 


different  grades,   from  the   sublimity  of   the 
star-lit  heaven  to  the  loveliness  of  the  hum- 
ming-bird,  or  of   the    poetry  and   art  which 
are  the  expressions  of  that  sense.     It  would 
be    difficult    to    account    for   beauty,    or   the 
sense  of  beauty,  by  physical  evolution,  while 
their    presence    and    the    charm   which    they 
throw  over   life   seem   to   bespeak   a   certain 
tenderness  on  the  part  of  the  Being  in  whose 
power  we  are  which  softens  the  stern  aspect 
of  evolution.     The  same  may  be  said  of  the 
poetic  element  in  man,  which  as  yet  no  one 
has  undertaken  to   trace   to   physical   evolu- 
tion; of  the  sentimental  love,  which   is   not 
essential   to   procreation;    and   of   the   moral 
beauty,  which,  though  connected,  is  not  iden- 
tical with  practical   usefulness.      Adaptation 
is  produced  by  evolution;  but  it  is  only  in  a 
secondary  sense  that  we  call  adaptation  beau- 
tiful.     Darwin's  loss  of  taste  for  poetry  and 
art  is  remarkable;  he  seems  to  have  felt  it  as 
a  defect  and  as  the  atrophy  of  an  essential 
part  of  his  nature,  not  as  the  necessary  result 
of  devotion  to  scientific  truth. 

Man's  notion  of  God  has  risen  from  nature- 


lit       ^ 


¥V^^ 


11  n. 

I' 


d!-': 


234 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


:^ ;  ^ 


M;i 


worship,  it  may  be  from  fetishism,  to  <ihe 
conception  of  the  Heavenly  Father  who  is 
the  idealization  of  our  own  moral  nature. 
Anthropomorphism  still  clings  to  our  theism ; 
the  very  name  of  Father  involves  it;  so  do 
those  of  Benefactor  and  Judge;  nor  can  we 
think  of  a  persQi;ial  God  without  importing 
human  personality  into  the  ide^.  3u^  a  short- 
coming in  our  power  o|  «^onception  does  ngit 
prove  the  object  of  our  thoughts  to  be  unre^J. 
We  fail  to  conceive  infinity,  yet  we  are  sure 
that  the  universe  is  infinite.  For  the  purpose 
of  natural  theology  and  especially  of  ii^quiriei^ 
like  the  present,  it  might  be  weU  to  say  Power 
or  Soul  of  the  lUniverse  instead  of  G;q<jl« 

Qf  the  attempts  to  construct  for  us  ^  reli- 
gion without  a  God,  it  may  surely  be  8ai,d 
th^t  they  serve  only  to  sJl?iow  the  ten{^sity  of 
the  religious  sentiment  and  the  voi4  which 
is  left  ip  the  heart  by  the  departure  of  reli- 
gion. Of  tlj^e  ComtiS|t  Religion  of  Humanity 
we  have  spoken  already.  We  jhave  only  to 
ask  once  more  b^w  it  is  possible  for  us 
to  bow  down  ii;i  adoration  to  an  abstractipn 
which    is    insensib],e    to    our    worship.      An 


■fe» 


MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


286 


abstraxytioh,  in  fact,  Comte's  Great  Being 
must  he;  ii  cannot  even  have  so  much  sub- 
stance as  there  would  be  in  a  generalization, 
since,  history  being  unfinished,  the  basis  for 
the  genierali'zation  is  incomplete.  The  Posi- 
tivist  ritual  and  calendar,  which  are  a  fanci- 
ful reproduction  of  Catholicism,  appear  to 
have  taken  little  hold  compared  with  the 
philosophic  part  of  the  system;  while  even 
the  philosophic  part  has  taken  hold  less  as 
a  scientific  solution  than  as  a  negation  of 
the  theistic  view.  The  alleged  account  of 
history  as  a  succession  of  theistic,  metaphysi- 
cal, and  Positivist  conceptions  of  the  universe 
cannot  be  verified  by  facts,  which  fail  espe- 
cially in  respect  to  the  metaphysical  period. 
The  Founder  of  the  Religion  of  Humanity 
believed  in  the  finality  of  his  own  system, 
assuming  that  progress  had  reached  its  com- 
pletion in  it,  and  that  he  could  cast  society 
into  its  fiwai  mould.  The  limits  which  he 
undertook  to  set  to  human  knowledge  have, 
in  one  direction,  already  been  overpast.  Sup- 
posing his  theory  of  the  three  periods,  the 
theistic,  the  metaphysical,  and  the  positive, 


Ff"!  ^' 


236 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


were  true,  how  could  he  tell  that  Positivism 
was  the  last  birth  of  time  or  that  destiny 
might  not  have  a  fourth  period,  possibly 
even  a  reversion  to  theism  in  store? 

Of  Spiritualism  little  need  he  said.  It 
testifies  to  the  craving  of  mankind  for  some- 
thing beyond  sense,  and  for  something  to  fill 
up  the  blank  left  by  the  failure  of  religious 
faith,  as  well  as  to  the  desire  of  renewing 
communion  with  the  lost  objects  of  affection. 
It  can  hardly  be  admitted  even  to  have  a 
good  title  to  its  name,  since  the  dead  are 
made  to  "materialize,"  and  to  use  material 
instruments  of  communication. 

Nor  can  it  be  necessary  to  dwell  on  the 
different  kinds  of  mysticism  in  which  soli- 
taries or  small  circles  have  taken  refuge, 
thinking  that  by  seclusion  they  can  shut  out 
the  evil  world,  or  soar  above  it  by  spiritual 
ecstasy.  We  are  not  in  Asia;  and  Lamaism, 
though  Schopenhauer  would  commend  to  us 
something  like  it,  with  universal  self-efface- 
ment in  prospect  as  the  ultimate  paradise,  is 
not  likely  to  afford  satisfaction  here. 

Others,  Seeley,  for  instance,  would  give  us, 


itivism 
destiny 
)Ossibly 

id.      It 

r  some- 
to  fill 
eligious 

newing 
ffection. 

have  a 
ead  are 
material 

on  the 
ich  soli- 

retuge, 
shut  out 
spiritual 
^amaism, 
id  to  us 
jlf -efface - 
[•adise,  is 

■ 

give  us, 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


237 


as  a  substitute  for  definite  belief  in  God,  a 
religion  of  enthusiastic  admiration.  "The 
words  *religion'  and  'worship,'"  says  Seeley, 
"are  commonly  and  conveniently  appropriated 
to  the  feelings  with  which  we  regard  God; 
but  these  feelings,  love,  awe,  admiration, 
which  together  make  up  worship,  are  felt  in 
various  combinations  for  human  beings  and 
even  for  inanimate  objects."  "It  is  not,"  he 
says,  "exclusively,  but  only  par  excellence^ 
that  religion  is  directed  towards  God."  Re- 
ligion he  elsewhere  describes  as  "that  higher 
life  of  man  which  is  sustained  by  admira- 
tion," adding  that  "it  has  its  essence  in  wor- 
ship or  some  kind  of  enthusiastic  contempla- 
tion seeking  for  expression  in  outward  acts." 

i 

If  such  is  the  origin  of  art,  he  is  prepared 
to  call  art  religion.  Enthusiastic  nationality 
with  him  is  religion.  He,  and  perhaps  not  \ 
he  alone,  makes  of  the  nation  a  god.  This 
surely  is  mere  playing  with  words  or  worse; 
it  is  an  attempt  to  cheat  us  into  the  impres- 
sion that  we  have  a  religious  belief  when  we 
have  none.  The  objects  of  admiration,  social, 
scientific,    or   aesthetic,    however   salutary   or 


.!■■.•-  'e, 

.  m  ■  si 

Mi 

.  ,-  ■  •*"  ■^ 

>'■'•■  - 


M 


238 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


elevating  may  be  their  influence,  are  not  a 
Father  in  heaven.  Ask  the  widow  with  her 
fatherless  children  whether  they  are.  Nor 
does  the  cultui*e  necessary  for  these  lofty  and 
refined  emotions  extend,  or  bid  fair  within 
any  calculable  time  to  extend,  to  the  masses 
of  the  people.  A  clown  who  cannot  read  or 
write  and  who  earns  his  bread  by  the  coarsest 
work  can  take  in  the  idea  of  God  and  of 
divine  rewards  and  punishments  as  thor- 
oughly as  Professor  Seeley  with  all  his  Cult- 
ured capacity  for  admiration.  But  it  would 
be  difficult  to  infuse  into  the  clown  a  reli- 
gion of  national  aggrandizement  or  of  art. 

"  Cosmic  emotion  "  presents  itself  only  as  a 
substitute  for  religious  emotion,  since  nothing 
has  been  said  about  embodying  it  in  worship. 
It  comes  to  us  commended  by  poetic  quota- 
tions, and  for  common  hearts  stands  in  need 
of  the  commendation.  Transfer  of  affection 
from  an  all-loving  Father  to  an  adamantine 
universe  is  a  process  which  needs  all  the  aid 
that  the  witchery  of  poetry  can  supply, 
though  the  poetry  itself,  for  aught  that  we 
can  see,    must  be   ground   out   by  the   same 


!   J» 


V^'. 

u  , 

1 

1 

( 

' 

1 

it 

1 

mi 

■^! 

iii 

1 

n 

m 

■ 

i 

L 

li 

m 

MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


239 


mill  of  evolution  which  grinds  out  virtue  and 
affection.  The  symbols  of  cosmic  emotion 
seem  to  be  the  feelings  produced  by  the  two 
objects  of  Kant's  peculiar  reverence,  the 
starry  heavens  and  the  moral  faculties  of 
man.  But,  atier  all,  what  are  these  but 
aggregations  of  molecules  in  a  certain  stage 
of  evolution  ?  To  be  able  to  feel  cosmic 
emotion,  at  all  events,  you  must  be  sure  that 
you  have  a  cosmos.  The  phrase  law  is 
taken  by  science  from  theology,  or  from 
jurisprudence.  Science  can  tell  us  nothing 
but  phenomena  accumulated  by  experience 
and  methodized,  which  would  not  make  a 
law,  properly  speaking,  though  they  had  been 
observed  through  myriads  of  years.  In  "cos- 
mos "  also  a  theistic  connotation  seems  to 
lurk,  since  order  there  could  hardly  be  without 
an  ordering  power. 

Too  little  notice  has  been  taken  by  moral 
philosophers  of  the  different  situations  and 
circumstances  of  men.  They  write  as  though 
all  men  were  capable  of  philosophy  and  free 
to  follow  its  sublime  advice.  All  men  are 
capable  of  religion;   all  men  can  understand 


IfT" 


240 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


the  force  of  a  divine  command  and  the  doc- 
trine of  future  reward  or  punishment;  but  it 
is  vain  to  expect  that  a  coal-heaver  will 
appreciate  Shaftesbury's  delineation  of  the 
beauty  of  virtue  like  the  persons  of  refine- 
ment to  whom  it  was  addressed,  or  be  made 
to  glow  with  cosmic  emotion  like  Walt 
Whitman;  and  until  the  structure  of  society 
has  been  radically  changed,  coal-heavers,  or 
multitudes  as  little  philosophic  or  poetic, 
there  will  continue  to  be.  We  may  begin 
to  think  that  we  have  reestablished  religion, 
when  a  practical  impression,  such  as  would 
exhibit  itself  in  worship  or  something  equiva- 
lent to  it,  has  been  made  on  common  and 
uncultivated  minds. 

If  no  divine  rommand  for  the  practice 
of  ^drtue  can  be  shown,  if  no  assurance  of 
the  virtuous  man's  reward,  such  as  Paley 
assumes,  can  be  given,  moral  philosophy 
must,  it  would  appear,  be  content  simply 
to  take  the  observation  of  human  nature  as 
its  basis  and  to  build  its  system  on  the 
natural  desires  of  man,  offering  them  such 
satisfaction  as  is  consistent  with  the  welfare 


mr  .  <■ 


r -sji 


MORALITY  AND   THEISM 


241 


of  the  community  and  the  race.  We  natu- 
rally desire  health,  and  to  be  healthy  means 
to  be  temperate  and  continent;  we  desire, 
for  ourselves  and  our  families,  the  means  of 
living,  and  to  obtain  them  we  must  be  indus- 
trious, frugal,  and  of  good  repute;  we  desire 
domestic  happiness,  and  to  obtain  it  we  must 
practise  the  domestic  virtues;  we  desire  the 
good-will  of  our  fellow-men  with  the  advan- 
tages which  it  brings,  and  to  obtain  it  we 
must  practise  the  virtues  of  good  members  of 
society  and  good  citizens.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  altruism  in  the  literal  sense  of  that 
term.  Self  is  present  in  all  we  do,  though 
the  self  is  that  of  a  being  who  desires  love 
and  fellowship  as  well  as  food  and  raiment; 
with  which  qualification  the  philosophy  which 
has  resolved  morality  into  self-interest, 
though  much  decried,  would  be  right  enough. 
No  man  ever  really  acts  against  what  he 
apprehends  at  the  time  to  be  his  interest, 
though  his  interest  may  lead  him  to  sacrifice 
his  animal  or  individual  to  his  domestic  or 
social  desires. 

The    good  which   we  do   to  others    yields 


242 


MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


!j!ii| 


\ 


us  a  deeper  and  more  lasting  satisfaction 
than  the  good  which  we  do  to  ouraelves. 
This  is  a  pregnant  fact  and  may  seem  to 
indicate  the  purpose  of  the  author  of  our 
nature,  if  our  nature  has  an  author,  and  to 
promise  a  social  consummation  before  the 
close.  How  far  devotion  to  the  interests  of 
the  race  and  heroic  or  philanthropic  action 
will  be  affected  by  the  departure  of  theistic 
belief  will  be  seen  when  the  kingdom  of 
atheism  or  agnosticism  has  fully  come.  But 
it  is  not  by  such  a  figment  as  posthumous 
fame  that  the  hearts  of  reasoning  beings  will 
be  lifted  above  selfish  desires.  Nor  is  it 
likely  that  tribalism,  however  exalted  or  re- 
fined by  nationality  and  patriotism,  will  act 
as  it  did  on  the  Greek  or  Roman,  in  whom 
still  lived,  though  in  a  sublimaj^ed  form,  the 
gregarious  instinct  Of  the  herd. 

Intellectual  effort,  while  it  implies  moral 
conditions,  such  as  may  dispose  to  lafboui^  and 
raise  above  sensual  indulgence,  has  niotivd 
powers  and  attractions  of  its  own  apart 
from  any  which  theism  supplies.  Yet  we 
can    hardly   feel    sure    that    there    is    not    a 


U  '■:■■: 


^  illiil'i 


MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


243 


theistio  element  in  the  scientific  po^^icience, 
which  sacrifices  not  only  ease  and  pleasure  but 
sometimes  reputation  and  everything  else  to 
the  pursuit  of  truth. 

Whether  this  is,  as  Leibnitz  thought,  the 
best,  or,  as  Schopenhauer  thought,  the  worst, 
of  all  possible  worlds,  neither  of  Ihem  could 
really  tell.  Neither  of  them  had  any  means 
of  verifying  his  hypothesis  by  comparison  or 
in  any  other  way.  Practically  it  is  a  very 
different  world  for  different  men.  For  the 
Roman  emperor  this  was  not  the  worst  of  all 
possible  worlds;  by  the  Roman  slave  it  could 
hardly  be  deemed  the  best.  Man's  temporal 
estate  is  apparently  capable  of  indefinite  im- 
provement within  the  limits  of  mortality, 
though  the  improvement  will  not  cancel  the* 
sufferings  of  the  generations  that  are  past. 

It  takes,  v/e  are  told,  a  period  of  time 
longer  than  man's  recorded  history  for  a 
ray  of  light  to  reach  the  earth  from  the 
remotest  telescopic  star.  Yet  the  starry  field 
swept  by  the  telescope  is  inconceivably  less 
than  that  which  we  must  assume  to  lie 
beyond.     In  such  a  univerae  what  is  the  life 


ii.a-  ' 

|l' '  ' 

Wl":  ■  = 

''/.,■ 

244 


MORALITY  AND  THEISM 


of  a  man?  Our  little  being  is  lost  in 
immensity.  This  thought  and  that  of  the 
impenetrable  mystery  of  existence  are  likely, 
rather  than  cosmic  emotion,  worship  of  hu- 
manity, or  any  of  thy  other  substitutes  for 
theism,  to  take  possession  of  the  human  mind 
if  the  belief  in  a  God  is  withdrawn. 


r.-i-  ;^ 


,11 


''■  4 


mm 


Hi, 


lost  in 
;  of  the 
d  likely, 
)  of  hu- 
cutes  for 
an  mind 


ONE  WORD   MORE 


i 


4 


%'.: 


I  ? 


w 

]. 

1  iiiiW' 

1    ■■% 

1 

> 

i 

II 

J 

|i*y 

ONE  WORD  MORE 


There  have  been  many  notices  of  these 
essays,  but  none,  so  far  as  the  writer  has 
observed,  distinctly  traversing  any  material 
statement  or  in  that  respect  calling  for  a  re- 
ply. The  writer  has  been  thankful  to  see  that 
his  tone  has  not  been  deemed  irreverent  or  ir- 
religious, and  that  credit  has  been  given  him 
for  a  sincere  desire  of  arriving  at  more  posi- 
tive conclusions,  if  proof  of  them  can  be  found. 
Who,  indeed,  seeing  what  religion,  apart  from 
its  unspeakable  importance  to  each  of  us  spirit- 
ually, is  to  society,  to  the  commonwealth,  to  the 
home,  even  to  the  aesthetic  part  of  our  nature, 
to  poetry  and  art,  can  think  of  dealing  with  it 
lightly  or  look  forward  without  dread  to  its 
departure  ?  Immense  would  be  the  void  which 
would  be  left  in  life.  Churches  are  still 
full,  perhaps  fuller  than  ever,  ministration  is 

247 


■1i  ! 


I'i: 


mm 


:*!■ 


I  '.V'^' 


Himt 


248 


ONE    WORD  MORE 


more  active  than  ever,  yet  it  is  hardly  possible 
that  church  or  ministration  should  long  survive 
the  intellectual  downfall  of  the  faith. 

Criticism  has  fixed  almost  exclusively  on  the 
essay  of  which  the  subject  is  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. This  essay  is  charged  with  lack  of  re- 
search ;  by  which  is  probably  meant  failure  to 
deal  with  the  dates  and  origin  of  the  books. 
That  inquiry  belongs  to  Hebrew  and  Oriental 
experts.  It  not  only  was  beyond  the  compass 
of  these  essays,  but  would  have  been  foreign 
to  the  writer's  purpose,  which  was,  as  the 
preface  stated,  to  put  those  practical  questions 
to  which  answers  are  urgently  desired  by  plain 
people.  The  facts  practically  important  are 
manifest  and  can  be  verified  by  all.  Anybody 
can  see  that  of  a  book  which  speaks  of  the 
death  of  Moses,  Moses  cannot  have  been  the 
writer ;  that  a  book  which  speaks  of  the  kings 
of  Israel  cannot  have  been  written  before  there 
were  any  kings ;  that  a  book  which  speaks  of 
a  line  of  prophets  cannot  have  been  written 
before  that  line  camo  into  existence.  It  is 
certain  that  the  anonymous  author  or  authors 
of  Genesis  were  not  present  at  the  creation  of 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


249 


[y  possible 
ag  survive 

ely  on  the 
)ld  Testa- 
ack  of  re- 
failure  to 
:he  books, 
d  Oriental 
le  compass 
en  forei-^n 
as,   as   the 
questions 
d  by  plain 
ortant   are 
Anybody 
iks  of  the 
B  been  the 
the  kings 
ifore  there 
speaks  of 
3n  written 
ice.     It   is 
or  authors 
creation  of 


the  world,  and  that  the  account  of  the  Creation 
given  in  Genesis  is  irreconcilably  at  variance 
with  the  discoveries  of  science.  Any  one, 
moreover,  can  verify  the  fact  that  Genesis  is 
a  composite  document,  combining  duplicate 
versions  of  the  Creation,  of  the  Flood,  of  the 
story  of  Abraham  and  Isaac,  and  of  the  story 
of  Joseph.  Wo  can  all  see  that  the  general 
authorship  is  Priestly  or  Prophetic  as  well  as 
Jehovistic.  We  can  hardly  be  wrong  in  say- 
ing that  the  story  of  Korah,  Dathau,  and 
Abiram,  swallowed  up  by  the  earth  for  their 
schism,  is  the  production  of  an  established 
priesthood.  We  can  hardly  be  wrong  in  say- 
ing that  the  story  of  the  forty-two  children 
miraculously  destroyed  by  bears  for  an  in- 
sult to  a  prophet  was  the  work  of  one  of  the 
prophetic  order.  As  to  the  dates  of  the  books 
and  their  specific  sources,  the  writer  has  liaJ 
before  him  the  critics,  whose  speculations,  how- 
ever, it  seems  to  him,  have  not  yet  advanced 
beyond  hypothesis ;  the  last  conjecture  as- 
cribing the  Pentateuch  to  a  Hebrew  Homoi-, 
whose  figure  lurks  behind  those  of  Elijah  and 
Elisha.     But  this  inquiry,  however  interesting 


■''^ff! 


',,  !< 


(    'in 


250 


ONE   WORD   MORE 


to  scholars,  comparatively  little  concerns  those 
who  only  want  to  know  whether  the  books 
of  the  Old  Testament  are  or  are  not  the  in- 
spired Word  of  God,  the  genuine  manifesta- 
tion of  his  will,  and  the  true  record  of  his 
dealings  with  mankind.  To  the  specialists  it 
must  be  left.  Whatever  the  Book  of  Jasher 
or  the  Book  of  the  Wars  of  Jehovah  may  have 
been,  we  may  feel  assured  that  an  inspired 
writer  would  not  have  cited  an  uninspired 
document  as  an  authority  for  his  statements. 
Whatever  may  be  the  exact  relation  of  Genesis 
to  the  Babylonian  legends,  we  may  feel  assured 
that  the  Creator  would  not  have  had  recourse 
to  the  Babylonian  legends  as  a  foundation  for 
his  account  of  his  own  work.  The  religion  of 
thb  many  cannot  be  founded  on  a  literary  criti- 
cism or  philosophical  manipulation  of  the  Bible, 
any  more  than  it  can  be  founded  on  metaphys- 
ics.    It  must  be  founded  on  plain  fact. 

The  writer,  some  clerical  critics  say,  has 
been  ignorantly  dealing,  not  with  the  latest 
phase  of  ecclesiastical  thought,  but  with  a 
phase  now  bygone  and  discarded.  Is  there 
any  phase   of    ecclesiastical   thought  later   or 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


251 


more  advanced  than  Lux  Mundi  and  the 
works  of  Dr.  Sanday  and  Dr.  Farrar?  Has 
there  been  any  advance  in  ecclesiastical  opinion 
about  Genesis  since  the  utterance  of  Canon 
Bonney  in  1895  ?  Has  any  ecclesiastical  writer 
dealt  with  the  subject  of  a  future  life  since 
Dr.  Salmond? 

There  is  a  school,  styled  by  one  of  its  chief 
members  that  of  Liberal  Orthodoxy,  which  be- 
lieves that  it  has  found  a  resting-place,  per- 
haps a  refuge,  between  untenable  tradition  and 
conclusions  from  which  all  who  have  been 
brought  up  in  the  established  faith,  especially 
clergymen,  must  naturally  recoil.  This  school 
would  retain  the  orthodox  forms  and  phrases, 
infusing  into  them  a  rationalistic  meaning.  It 
continues  to  speak  of  the  Word  of  God,  while 
it  admits  that  with  the  Word  of  God  in  the 
Bible  is  blended  much  that  is  the  work  of  err- 
ing, and  even  of  very  erring,  man.  It  retains 
the  terms  "inspiration"  and  "revelation,"  while 
it  pares  down  Inspiration  to  an  excellent  use 
of  the  natural  faculties,  and  identifies  revelation 
with  evolution.  The  Messiah  is  transformed 
into   a  representative  of    humanity,   an   idea 


252 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


!'-','■ 


f:^^. 


m^t 


■U^.. 


m 


foreign  to  the  Jewish  mind,  and  even  to  the 
mind,  larger  in  this  respect,  of  the  Greek. 
The  detailed  account  of  the  Creation  in  Gene- 
sis, evidently  meant  by  the  writer  as  literal 
truth  without  the  slightest  suggestion  of  alle- 
gory or  parable,  is  either  allegorized  or  reduced 
t'^  a  theistic  hypothesis  of  Creation  in  line  with 
the  discoveries  of  modern  science.  The  Fall  of 
Man  is  made  to  mean  the  normal  weakness  of 
the  flesh.  The  Atonement  and  Redemption  are 
not  an  atonement  or  a  redemption,  but  merely 
an  improvement  through  Christ  of  the  relation 
of  man  to  the  Deity.  Miracles  become  mani- 
festations of  a  higher  law,  in  a  word,  are  not 
miracles  at  all,  but  natural  though  extraordi- 
nary events;  an  expedient  which  does  not 
remove  the  difficulty,  since  the  necessity  for 
extraordinary  evidence  remains.  The  school 
admits  that  the  Hebrew  books  are  a  miscellany, 
like  the  literature  of  other  nations ;  yet  it  re- 
tains the  name  "Bible,"  with  the  ideas  of  unity 
and  of  divine  purpose  pervading  the  whole 
which  that  name  connotes. 

Those  of  us  who  have  a  practical  object  in 
view,  and  are  unshackled  by  any  Articles  or 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


263 


Confessions,  may  not  care  to  be  delayed  in  our 
quest  of  the  truth  by  detention  in  a  halting- 
place  such  as  this.  But  we  shall  not  quarrel 
with  those  who  do,  provided  that  they  will  in 
charity  refrain  from  accusing  us  of  infidelity, 
or  explain  that  they  mean  by  infidelity  only 
frank  acceptance  of  proved  facts,  and  frank 
rejection  of  those  which  are  disT    )ved. 

We  must,  however,  be  permiti;t;d  >  protest 
against  the  assumption  that  ti»  view  of  a 
select  circle  of  learned  ration alit '  i  is  accepted 
by  the  churches,  and  that  cr  "ism  of  any  less 
rationalistic  view  is  consequently  out  of  date 
and  belated.  Are  not  the  Anglican  Articles, 
the  Westminster  Confession,  and  the  ordina- 
tion vows  of  the  clergy  in  other  churches  still 
in  force  ?  Is  not  the  whole  Bible  still  read  in 
church,  tendered  to  the  masses,  presented  by 
missionaries  to  the  heathen  without  discrimi- 
nation or  qualification  as  the  Word  of  God? 
In  the  last  revision  of  the  English  Bible  is  not 
the  Pentateuch  ascribed  to  Moses,  the  Book  of 
Daniel  to  Daniel,  and  the  two  parts  of  Isaiah  to 
a  single  writer,  who  is  thus  made  to  predict 
Cyrus    by  name    nearly    two   hundred  years 


? 


254 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


'     i 

\-]"\ 

- 

;':')' 

I 

Iff 

^i    i 

1 '"•;=" 

f  :■ 

!•.;;;    ! 

before  his  date?  Are  not  the  imprecatory 
Psalms  used  without  distinction  or  warning? 
Are  they  not  read,  and  not  only  read  but 
chanted,  with  the  same  reverence  as  the  other 
Psalms?  Does  not  the  Anglican  lectionary 
include  the  sanguinary  career  of  Jehu,  conclud- 
ing with  the  divine  benediction?  Did  not 
Dr.  Liddon,  full  of  all  theological  learning, 
maintain  the  literal  interpretation  of  the  Book 
of  Jonah?  Does  not  Dr.  Stanley,  a  leading 
liberal  as  well  as  widely  read,  in  his  Sinai 
and  Palestine  treat  the  Exodus  as  certainly 
historical?  Is  not  the  Commandment  assert- 
ing that  the  Creator  made  the  world  in  six 
days  and  rested  on  the  seventh  still  set  up  and 
rehearsed  in  churches  as  the  utterance  of  God 
from  Sinai?  Liberal  Orthodoxy  asserts  that 
all  educated  orthodoxy  is  now  liberal.  Ortho- 
doxy, not  only  educated,  but  highly  educated, 
replies  by  refusing  Liberal  Orthodoxy  lecture 
halls  and  professorial  chairs. 

"Many  of  the  artisans,"  Dean  Farrar  says, 
"have  been  persuaded  to  believe  that  the 
Church  is  a  hostile  and  organized  hypoc- 
risy."   If  they  compare  her  authorized  version 


ONE    WftRU  MORE 


265 


of  the  Bibla,  her  loctionjiry,  her  articles, 
her  creeds,  her  public  ttniching  generally, 
with  the  opinions  personally  avowed  by  some 
of  her  most  eminent  divines,  they  may  at 
least  be  pardoned  for  doubting  whether  her 
public  professions  and  utterances  are  perfectly 
sincere.  The  Dean's  lamentation  is  the  answer 
to  those  who  say,  'These  things  which  you 
tell  us  are  familiar  to  all  educated  men;  to 
educated  men  let  them  be  confined ;  why 
create  disturbaiice  and  perhaps  imperil  the 
social  order  which  rests  upon  religious  belief  by 
communicating  them  to  the  common  people?' 
The  disturbance  already  prevails  ;  the  common 
people,  such  of  them  at  least  as  think,  are 
already  full  of  that  suspicious  and  hostile  scep- 
ticism, the  saddest  frame  of  mind  in  which 
they  could  be.  The  monopoly  of  free  thought 
by  the  select  and  enlightened  few  has  come  to 
an  end.  Theological  figments  are  no  longer 
of  any  use  even  for  the  sorry  purpose  of 
police. 

If  two  elements,  a  human  and  a  divine,  are 
blended  in  the  Bible,  or  in  the  Old  Testament, 
how  are  we  to   distinguish   the   divine   from 


256 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


U  1 

•I  i 

I 


(J    *        ' ' 

\$\: 

1 

I  ■^''  ■'' ' 

t 

W-f 

1; 

I  "111 


;i!.'  ■■  K» 


the  human?  No  test  is  suggested  to  us  ex- 
cept the  test  of  reason  and  conscience.  Dean 
Farrar  tells  us,  as  Bishop  Butler  had  told  us, 
that  reason  and  conscience  must  be  supreme. 
But  if  reason  and  conscience  are  competent  to 
distinguish  the  divine  from  the  human,  and 
thus  to  pass  judgment  on  revelation,  where  was 
the  use  of  any  revelation  at  all  ? 

Orthodox  Liberals  frankly  admit  that  there 
are  in  the  Old  Testament  not  only  things 
pre-sc:  3ntific  and  unhistorical,  but  things  re- 
pugnant, and  even  revoltingly  repugnant,  to  civ- 
ilized morality.  The  massacre  of  the  Canaanites 
with  their  wives  and  children,  the  murder  of 
Sisera  by  Jael,  the  butcheries  of  Jehu,  the 
massacre  in  Esther,  and  the  execution  of 
Haman's  sons,  are  heartily  condemned.  So 
are  those  fanatioal  and  superstitious  laws  or 
precepts  in  which  religious  persecution  and 
witch-burning  found  their  warrant-i.  Are  we 
to  suppose,  then,  that  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  the 
mixture  of  the  divine  element  with  the  human, 
collaborated  with  the  mouthpieces  of  immo- 
rality, cruelty,  and  deadly  superstition,  know- 
ing, as  omniscience  must,  that  of  their  teaching 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


267 


by  precept  or  example,  the  extermination  of 
the  Albigenses,  the  slaughter  of  the  inliabi- 
tants  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Crusaders,  the 
massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  the  Inquisition, 
the  holocausts  of  innocent  women  as  witches 
would  naturally  and  surely  come  ?  Would  the 
God  of  mercy  and  justice,  if  he  had  taken 
part  in  the  work  and  sent  it  forth  with  his 
authority,  have  allowed  himself  to  be  repre- 
sented as  stopping  the  course  of  the  sun  to 
prolong  the  carnage  of  a  battle,  or  as  putting 
to  death  all  the  first-born  of  Egypt,  including 
thousands  of  innocent  babes,  because  the 
despot  who  was  their  master  would  not  let 
Israel  go?  The  explanation  tendered  is  that 
the  divine  morality  was  accommodated  to  that 
of  the  age.  But  to  raise  the  morality  of  the 
age  to  the  level,  or  something  nearer  to  the 
level,  of  divine  morality,  was  surely  the  only 
intelligible  object  of  revelation. 

What  is  the  real  value,  spiritual  or  literary, 
of  the  several  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  we 
shall  be  better  able  to  judge  when  the  supersti- 
tious use  of  them  is  frankly  laid  aside  and 
when  they  are  no  longer  irrationally  bound  up 


268 


OliE  WORD  MORE 


fi  '•     !•'  <  < 


ri  .  ,  ^ I 


i 


together  and  treated  collectively  as  the  Word 
of  God.  It  may  be  that  while  on  the  one 
hand  they  will  lose  their  fallacious  exaltation, 
they  will  on  the  other  hand  be  relieved  of  the 
prejudice  which  may  be  created  against  them 
by  their  exaggerated  demands  on  faith,  the 
identification  of  their  inhuman  or  repulsive 
passages  with  Deity,  and  the  darkness  of  the 
shadow  which  thev  have  too  often  been  allowed 
and  are  still  in  some  measure  allowed  to  cast 
on  human  life. 

It  is  not  open  to  us  to  dispose  of  such  things 
as  tie  slaughter  of  the  Canaanites  and  the  mur- 
der of  Sisera  by  saying  that  they  belong  to 
primeval  sentiment  in  a  barbarous  age.  The 
events,  if  the  -  really  happened,  perhaps  did; 
but  the  narratives  belong  to  the  spiritual  me- 
ridian of  the  nation,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  narrator  glories  in  his  tale.  Deborah 
is  made  to  sing  a  paean  over  the  act  of  Jael. 
The  slaughter  of  the  Canaanites  is  specially 
ascribed  by  the  narrator  to  God,  who  is  de- 
picted as  assisting  in  it  by  miracles.  The 
imprecatory  Psalms  also  probably  belong  to 
the    golden    age.      The    story   of   Jehu    ends 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


259 


with  a  divine  benediction.  David,  besides 
committing  murder  and  adultery,  both  of  the 
deepest  dye,  for  which  he  is  rebuke^^  and 
gently  punished  in  the  death  of  his  child,  is 
an  example  of  the  worst  practices  of  the  harem, 
tortures  to  death  the  people  of  a  captured  city, 
makes  raids  in  which  he  saves  neither  man 
nor  woman  alive,  butchers  two-thirds  of  the 
Moabites  for  cause  not  shown,  and  leaves  a 
bequest  of  murderous  vengeance  on  his  death- 
bed ;  yet  he  is  held  up  as  one  who  had  kept  the 
statutes  of  the  Lord,  repeatedly  blessed,  and 
designated  as  the  progenitor  of  the  Messiah. 
Solomon's  heart,  it  is  said  (1  Kings  xi.  4), 
"  was  not  perfect  with  the  Lord  his  God,  as  was 
the  heart  of  David  his  father."  So  in  reference 
to  Rehoboam :  "  I  will  not  take  the  whole 
kingdom  out  of  his  hand ;  but  I  will  make  him 
prince  all  the  days  of  his  life  for  David  my 
servant's  sake,  whom  I  chose  because  he  kept 
my  commandments  and  my  statutes."  ^    With- 


1  Dean  Farrar  seems  to  be  offended  with  those  who 
refer  to  the  expression,  "man  after  God's  own  heart,"  as 
a  proof  of  David's  Biblical  position.  Tlie  expression  is  used 
in  1  Sam.  xiii.  14,  and  cited  in  Acts  xiii.  22:  "And  when 


I'' ' 


!;•' 


( I 


K     . 


! 

■if^-i 

•  I '  4 

■1 

260 


•ONE   WORD  MORE 


out  doubt,  David  did  entirely  commend  himself, 
if  not  to  the  Lord  of  mercy,  justice,  and  purity, 
to  the  priesthood  of  Jehovah.  The  two  sons  and 
five  grandsons  of  Saul  are  hanged  and  impaled 
to  satisfy  the  vengeance  of  the  Gibeonites,  and 
we  are  told  that  "  after  this  God  was  entreated 
for  the  land."  How  is  the  uninspired  mind  to 
pick  its  way  through  this  confusion  of  the 
divine  with  the  extremely  human?  If  the 
uninspired  mind  of  the  expert  can  pick  its  way, 
can  that  of  the  common  people,  can  that  of  the 
heathen  into  whose  hands  the  missionary  puts 
the  Bible  as  the  Word  of  God  ? 

Grant  that  the  conception  of  Deity  in  the 
sacred  books  of  the  Hebrews  soars  far  in  purity 
above  the  Hellenic  conception ;  from  cruelty 
it  is  not  free.     Socrates  and  his  disciples  dis- 


he  had  removed  him  [Saul],  he  raised  up  unto  them  David 
to  be  their  king  ;  to  whom  also  he  gave  testimony,  and  said, 
I  liave  found  David  the  son  of  Jesse,  a  man  after  mine  own 
lieart,  which  shall  fulfil  all  my  will."  It  is  true  Samuel 
spoke  before  David  had  sinned,  but  omniscience  must  have 
known  David's  character  and  seen  in  him  the  friture  mur- 
(lorer  of  Uriah  a  ^d  seducer  of  Bathsheba,  as  well  as  the 
Imilder  of  the  Lord's  liouso.  Compare  the  high  and  un- 
(lualificd  eulogy  of  David  m  Psahn  Ixxxix.  20  et  sq. 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


261 


carded  and  abhorred  the  licentious  legends  of 
the  Hellenic  pantheon.  But  Christian  divines 
generally  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  discarded 
or  to  abhor  the  Hebrew  representations  of  the 
Deity  as  cruel  and  merciless,  while  the  Jew 
still  keeps  the  feast  of  Purim.  The  Hebrew 
as  well  as  the  Hellenic  God  is  represented  as 
misleading  men.  If  Zeus  sends  a  lying  dream 
to  Agamemnon,  Jehovah  puts  lying  spirits  into 
the  mouths  of  Ahab's  prophets.  The  God  of 
the  Westminster  Confession  who,  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world,  predestinates  a  part  of 
his  creatures  to  eternal  perdition,  irrespective 
of  their  faith  or  works,  "for  the  glory  of  his 
sovereign  power,"  is  surely  the  same  with  the 
deity  of  the  Hebrews  who  visits  the  iniquity  of 
the  fathers  upon  the  children. ^ 

1  Burton,  the  historian  of  Scotland,  says  of  the  fierce  and 
exterminating  Cameronians,  "By  anotlier  way  of  describ- 
ing the  relative  position  of  parties,  the  Cameronians  were 
tlie  select  people  of  God  and  his  chosen  instruments  ;  while 
all  who  differed  with,  or  opposed  them,  were  the  children  of 
perdition.  They  took  their  creed  from  the  New  Testament, 
but  their  associations  and  religious  revellings  were  all  in  the 
Old  ;  and  if  the  tone  of  their  writings  were  held  as  a  suffi- 
cient indication,  it  might  be  said  tliat  they  coldly  adopted  tlie 
one  as  a  formal  text,  but  lliat  their  souls  yearned  after  the 


262 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


i     I 


To  science  the  ascendancy  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment over  the  mmd  of  Christendom  has  been 
adverse,  since  the  Jew  habitually  ascribed 
everything  in  nature  to  the  direct  action  of 
God.  The  notion  of  science  seems  to  have  had 
no  place  in  the  Hebrew  mind.  Most  marked 
is  the  inferiority  in  this  respect  of  the  Hebrew 
to  the  Greek.  Can  writers,  thus  astray  in  their 
interpretation  of  the  universe,  have  been  the 
best  interpreters  of  the  ways  of  God  to  man  ? 

The  very  name  "  Bible "  and  tlie  collection 
of  all  the  books,  both  Hebrew  and  Christian, 
under  the  same  cover  have  imbued  us  with 
a  false  notion.  "  The  marked  separation  of 
the  Bible,"  says  Dean  Farrar,  "into  the  books 
of  the  Old  and  New  Covenants  is  alone  suf- 
ficient   to    show    that    the    Bible   cannot    be 


older  dispr.>!!.iti  ion,  as  a  practical  embodiment  of  their  own 
proud,  fierce,  and  exclusive  tempers.  They  loved  the  paral- 
lels which  it  afforded  them,  in  the  day  of  oppression  and 
bondage,  followed  by  that  of  victory  and  extermination  ;  and 
though  their  faith  bound  them  to  the  milder  dispensation, 
their  sympathies  ever  unconsciously  fell  back  on  those  self- 
sufficient  and  tyrannical  attributes,  which  the  principles  of 
toleration  have  counted  autasonistic  to  Christianity  instead 
of  fundamental  to  it."  —  History  of  iScotland,  1689-1748, 
I.,  33,  34  (1853). 


t 


lilf 


ONE    WORD  MORE 


263 


regarded  as  a  simple  homogeneous  book." 
"  Both  sections,"  he  adds,  "  represent  the  se- 
lected and  fragmentary  remains  of  extensive 
literature."  He  afterwards  illustrates  the  un- 
reasonableness of  treating  the  Bible  as  homo- 
geneous, and  of  indiscriminate  citation  of  it 
as  though  it  were  all  *'  on  the  same  level  of 
moral  insight,"  by  saying  that  "it  is  as  if  a 
man  should  try  to  represent  the  biography  of 
the  English  people,  and  in  order  to  do  so 
should  make  a  compilation  from  the  fragments 
of  Saxon  sagas  and  Witenagemot  decisions, 
with  some  paragraphs  of  the  Venerable  Bede, 
of  Giklas,  of  Beowulf,  some  poems  of  Ca;dmo«, 
of  Walter  Mapes,  of  Chaucer  and  Drayton  and 
Skelton  and  Thomas  Tusser,  some  chapters  of 
Froissart's  Chronicles^  and  of  William  of  Tyre 
and  the  Gresta  Del  per  Francos^  and  the  h'<,  - 
toric  plays  of  Shakespeare,  Spenser's  Epithala- 
mion,  and  parts  of  Milton  and  iacon,  ending 
with  selections  of  Pope,  Cow}>  ,  Wordsworth, 
Tennyson,  and  Browning."^  It  is  needless 
to  say  how  completely  this  has  been  masked 
■^rhe   impression    w  hich    the    Bible, 

1  The  Bible :  Its  Meaning  and  iSuprernacy,  p.  83. 


from    us 


i»T* 


264 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


1 1 


;i 


Old  and  New  Testament  together  bound  up 
as  one  volume,  inevitably  makes  upon  our 
minds,  is  that  it  is  a  harmonious  whole  with  w 
divine  purpose  running  through  it ;  and  fromi 
this  impression  even  learned  divines  of  the 
Liberal  Orthodox  school,  though  they  clearly 
enough  see  '.he  fact,  do  not  seem  to  have  set 
themselves  free.  They  habitually  use  the 
name  which  they  virtually  admit  to  be  inap- 
propriate, and  yield  to  the  impression  the 
fallacious  character  of  which  they  have  ex- 
posed. 

That  a  religious  character  runs  through  most 
of  the  boo\s  of  the  Old  Testament,  giving  them 
a  certain  unity,  is  true ;  though  in  parts  there 
is  a  visible  antagonism  between  the  righteous- 
ness of  the  prophet  and  the  legalism  of  the 
priest.  But  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  series 
of  medieval  chronicles,  which  were  generally 
the  work  of  ecclesiastics. 

The  moral  strength  of  the  Old  Testament  is 
its  preaching  of  righteousness,  which  has  fur- 
nished powerful  weapons  to  those  who  were 
protesting  against  injustice.  This  we  may 
trace  largely  to  the   influence  of  a  school   of 


ii- 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


266 


)und  up 
)on  our 
)  with  ai 
nd  from) 
o£  the 
■  cleaily 
lave  set 
use  the 
be  inap- 
»ion  the 
lave   ex- 

gh  most 
ng  them 
:ts  there 
^hteous- 
[  of  the 
lie  series 
enerally 

iment  is 
has  fiir- 
10  were 
ve  may 
jhool   of 


prophets  alien  and  antagonistic  to  power  and 
wealth,  independent  of  the  privileged  priest- 
hood, and  disposed  to  act  as  tribunes  of  the  poor 
and  oppressed.  Yet  the  righteousness  is  not 
free  from  tribalism,  the  spirit  of  which  has  per- 
haps re-appeared  in  the  doctrine  of  Election. 

In  the  Psalms  there  is  spiritual  elevation. 
But  the  general  sign  of  Jehovah's  favour  is  not 
spiritual  elevation  ;  it  is  worldly  well-being,  in- 
cluding the  tribal  blessing  of  posterity.  The 
Book  of  Job,  after  all,  solves  or  evades  the 
problem  of  suffering  righteousness  by  restoring 
to  Job  his  possessions  and  the  number  of  his 
children  two-fold.  Aristotle,  speaking  of  the 
good  man  in  adversity,  says,  "Yet  in  these  mis- 
fortunes beauty  of  character  shines  forth,  Avheii 
one  is  seen  bearing  with  patience  a  load  of 
calamity,  not  through  insensibility,  but  through 
nobleness  and  greatness  of  heart."  ^ 

The  Being  who  fills  infinity  and  eternity 
enters  into  a  covenant  with  a  Hebrew  sheikh, 
in  whose  tent  he  is  received  and  eats  bread. 
The  covenant  is  sealed  by  the  institution  of 
a  barbarous  tribal   rite.      In  virtue  of   it  the 

1  Nicomachoeon  Ethics,  I.,  x. 


266 


ONE    WORD  MORE 


I 


'IWi4 


Almighty  pledges  himself  to  take  into  his 
special  favour  the  sheikh's  race,  to  promote  its 
interest  and  grandeur  above  those  of  other 
races,  and  in  time  make  it  the  head  of  the  earth. 
This  is  the  basis  of  the  dispensation  and  the 
keynote  of  the  history.  Is  it  possible  that 
anybody  can  accept  this  legend,  the  manifest 
offspring  of  tribal  self-esteem,  at  the  present 
day  ?  Yet  if  we  do  not  accept  it,  what  becomes 
of  our  faith  in  the  Old  Testament? 

No  expedient,  it  would  seem,  could  be  more 
desperate  than  that  of  identifying  revelation 
with  evolution.  Can  any  two  ideas  be  more 
contrary  to  each  other?  Did  the  real  nature 
of  revelation  remain  hidden  till  tlie  appear- 
ance of  Darwin's  Origin  of  Species?  If  reve- 
lation is  in  a  constant  blate  of  evolution, 
where  is  the  process  to  end?  What  stage  in 
it  is  denoted  by  the  coming  and  the  teach- 
ing of  Christ?  What  did  Paul  mean  when 
he  anathematized  all  who  should  preach  any 
other  Gospel?  Christendom  must  surely  for 
eighteen  centuries  have  been  strangely  igno- 
rant of  itself. 


i 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


into  his 
miote  its 
)f  other 
le  earth, 
and  the 
ble  that 
manifest 
present 
becomes 

be  more 
vehition 
be  more 
[  nature 
appear- 
If  reve- 
^olution, 
stage  in 
3  teach- 
in  wiien 
ach  any 
rely  for 


To  pass  from  the  Ohl  Testament  to  the  New. 
To  what  was  said  about  the  want  of  ocular 
evidence  for  the  miracles,  there  lias,  so  far  as 
the  writer  is  aware,  been  no  reply,  and  as  was 
before  said,  it  is  inconceivable  that  God,  if 
our  faith  was  to  depend  on  miracles,  should 
not  have  vouchsafed  us  sufficient  evidence. 
Without  sufficient  evidence,  profession  of  be- 
lief would  be  not  faith,  but  inlidelity.  Above 
all,  there  would  surely  have  been  the  clear  and 
consistent  testimony  of  undoubted  eye-witnesses 
to  the  resurrection  of  Christ. 

Of  the  whole  circle  of  miracles,  tlie  centre 
and  the  ground  is  the  Incarnation.  If,  as 
science  shows,  there  was  no  Fall  of  Man,  but 
instead  of  it  a  rise  from  ^\\q  brute  state  to 
that  of  humanity,  there  was  no  need  for  Re- 
demption. If  there  was  no  need  for  Redemp- 
tion, there  was  no  reason  for  the  Incarnation. 
To  this  objection,  which  goes  to  the  very  root 
of  belief  in  the  miracles,  what  answer  can  be 
made  ?  If  no  answer  can  be  made,  what  be- 
comes of  the  history  of  the  miraculous  birth 
and  its  accompaniments  ?  What  becomes  of 
the     Resurrection?     What    becomes     of    the 


r 


268 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


whole  historical  and  dogmatic  system?  These 
questions  have   hitherto   been  asked  in  vain. 

May  it  not  be  said  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Incarnation  that  conception  of  it,  and  therefore 
belief  of  it,  is  impossible  ?  The  second  Person 
of  the  Trinity  fills,  as  God,  with  the  first  and 
third  Persons,  all  Being  ;  yet  he  is  sitting  in 
human  form  with  human  body  at  the  right 
hand  of  God,  whence  he  shall  come  to  judge 
the  world.  We  may  say  this  with  our  lips, 
but  with  all  reverence  it  may  be  asked,  can  we 
attach  any  meaning  to  our  words? 

Not  in  the  twilight  of  the  first  or  second 
century,  but  in  the  meridian  light  of  the  nine- 
teenth, we  have  seen  the  Virgin  Mary  declared 
immaculate  in  her  conception,  and  infallibility, 
a  long  step  towards  divinity,  conferred  upon 
the  Pope. 

It  was  noticed  in  the  essay  that  of  the  three 
miracles  attested  by  some  one,  anonymous 
and  unknown,  but  speaking  as  an  eye-witness, 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  Acts,  two,  the  ship- 
wreck and  preservation  of  Paul,  in  accordance 
with  his  presentiments,  and  his  escape  from 
the  sting  of  the  viper,  would  hardly  (be  deemed 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


269 


miracles  at  all.  The  third  csise,  that  of  the 
revival  of  Eutychus  (Acts  xx.  9-12),  is,  to 
say  the  least,  equivocal.  Paul,  embracing  the 
prostrate  youth,  says,  "Trouble  not  y  urselv^s; 
for  his  life  is  in  him."  He  utters  no  miracle- 
working  word.  He  then  returns  to  the  upper 
chamber  and  breaks  bread.  After  which  tlie 
youth,  having  had  time  for  recovery,  is  brouglit 
in  alive  and  well.  There  is  no  absolute  neces- 
sity for  construing  this  as  a  miracle  of  raising 
the  dead.i  Nor  is  there  anything  necessarily 
miraculous,  or  beyond  the  play  of  a  highly 
wrought  fancy,  in  the  silencing  of  the  pro- 
phetic maid  whose  importunities  offended  Paul 
(Acts  xvi.  18).  In  the  narrative  oi"  the  mirac- 
ulous release  of  Paul  and  Silas  from  prison,  the 
first  person  is  not  used.  It  is  remarkable  that 
in  the  only  cases  in  which  the  narrator,  who- 
ever he  may  have  been  (and  it  must  be  re- 
peated that  we  know  not  who  he  was),  speaks 
as  an  eye-witness,  it  is  possible   at  least  to 


'  De  Wette  and  Olshausen  both  render  the  words  fipBtt 
v€Kp6s  "was  taken  up  for  dead,"  and  this  interpretation 
might  probably  be  defended.  But  it  seems  more  likely  that 
the  writer  meant  to  give  the  incident  a  miraculous  colour. 


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explain  the  miracle  away.  The  speaking  in 
unknown  tongues  is  sufficiently  attested  by  St. 
Paul,  but  it  can  hardly  be  said  that  he  attests 
its  miraculous  character.  We  have  had  it  re- 
peated by  the  Irvingites  beneath  the  critical 
eye  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Far  easier 
would  have  been  innocent  self-deception  in 
St.  Paul's  day. 

Dean  Farrar,  in  a  work  which  we  have  all 
read  with  interest  and  respect,  says,  "About 
the  miracles  performed  by  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ  —  about  the  Incarnation,  the  Res- 
urrection, and  the  Ascension,  which  are  the 
most  stupendous  of  them  all  —  I  can  still  say, 
with  all  my  heart,  '  Manet  immota  fides.''  "  ^  If 
the  Dean's  faith  remains  unmoved,  the  same 
can  hardly  be  said  of  all  the  miracles. 

"  And  Jesus  cried  again  with  a  loud  Voice,  and  yielded 
up  his  spirit.  And  behold  the  veil  of  the  temple  was 
rent  in  twain  from  the  top  to  the  bottom ;  and  the  earth 
did  quake ;  and  the  rocks  were  rent ;  and  the  tombs  were 
opened ;  and  many  bodies  of  the  saints  which  were  fallen 
asleep  were  raised ;  and  coming  forth  out  of  the  tombs, 
after  his  resurrection,  they  entered  into  the  holy  city  and 
appeared  unto  many." — Matthew  xxvii.  50-53,  R.V. 

^  The  Bible :  Its  Meaning  and  Supremacy,  p.  226. 


ONE  WORD  MORE 


271 


It  would  seem  that  there  can  be  no  state- 
ment plainer  than  this,  or  of  which  we  could 
say  with  more  certainty  that  the  writer  meanl 
it  in  its  literal  sense.  But  what  is  the  Dean's 
version  ? 

"At  that  moment  the  viil  of  the  Temple  was  rent 
in  twain  from  the  top  to  the  bottom.  An  earthquaki; 
shook  the  earth  and  split  the  rocks,  find  as  it  rolled  awaj' 
from  their  places  the  great  stones  which  closed  and  cov- 
ered the  cavern  sepulchres  of  the  Jews,  so  it  seemed  to 
the  imaginations  of  many  to  have  disimprisoned  tlie 
spirits  of  the  dead,  and  to  have  filled  the  air  with 
ghostly  visitants,  who  after  Christ  had  risen  appeared 
to  linger  in  the  Holy  City."  * 

Prodigies  were  believed  by  educated  men 
to  have  accompanied  the  death  of  Charles  I., 
which  by  royalists  and  High  Churchmen  was 
profanely  likened  to  that  of  Christ.  The  halo 
of  miraculous  legend  which  formed  itself  roun<l 
Charles  in  an  intellectual  and  literary  age 
deserves  attention  as  showing  how  much  en- 
thusiastic fancy  can  do. 

Dean  Farrar's  interpretation  of  the  miracle  of 
the  swine  has  already  been  in  part  quoted. 
But  the  whole  passage  is  worth  giving  as  a 

1  Life  of  Christ,  II.,  418,  419. 


U 


I.H     :' 


m 


272 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


I't  iff 


!c;.s'^ 


1  ^  !  iji; 


specimen  of  the  necessity  under  which  its 
excellent  author  and  other  orthodox  but  con- 
scientious writers  find  themselves  placed  by  the 
advance  of  criticism  and  science :  — 

"  That  the  demoniac  was  healed  —  that  in  the  terrible 
final  paroxysm  which  usually  accompanied  the  deliver- 
ance from  this  strange  and  awful  malady,  a  herd  of 
swine  was  in  some  way  affected  with  such  wild  terror  as 
to  rush  headlong  in  large  numbers  over  a  steep  hill-side 
into  the  waters  of  the  lake  —  and  that,  in  the  minds  of 
all  who  were  present,  including  that  of  the  sufferer  him- 
self, this  precipitate  rushing  of  the  swine  was  connected 
with  the  man's  release  from  his  demoniac  thraldom  — 
thus  much  is  clear. 

"  And  indeed,  so  far,  there  is  no  difficulty  whatever. 
Any  one  who  believes  in  the  Gospels,  and  believes  that 
the  Son  of  God  did  work  on  earth  deeds  which  far  sur- 
pass mere  human  powers,  must  believe  that  among  the 
most  frequent  of  His  cures  were  those  of  the  distressing 
forms  of  mental  and  nervous  malady  which  we  ascribe  to 
merely  natural  causes,  but  which  the  ancient  Jews,  like  all 
Orientals,  attribute  to  direct  supernaWral  agency.  And 
knowing  to  how  singular  an  extent  the  mental  impres- 
sions of  man  affect  by  some  unknown  electrical  influence 
the  lower  animals  —  knowing,  for  instance,  that  man's 
cowardice  and  exultation,  and  even  his  superstitious 
terrors,  do  communicate  themselves  to  the  dog  which 
accompanies  him,  or  the  horse  on  which  he  rides  —  there 
can  be  little  or  no  diflSculty  in  understanding  that  the 
shrieks  end  gesticulations  of  a  powerful  lunatic  might 


firl 


J 


ONE  WORD  MORE 


273 


rhich  its 
but  con- 
3d  by  the 


the  terrible 
ihe  deliver- 
a  herd  of 
d  terror  as 
ep  hill-side 
lie  minds  of 
afferer  him- 
s  connected 
ihraldom  — 

y  whatever, 
elieves  that 
lich  far  sur- 

among  the 
J  distressing 
fe  ascribe  to 
Tews,  like  all 
jency.  And 
ntal  impres- 
cal influence 

that  man's 
mperstitious 
dog  which 
ides  —  there 
ing  that  the 
inatic  might 


strike  uncontrollable  terror  into  a  herd  of  swine.  We 
know  further  that  the  spasm  of  deliverance  was  often 
attended  with  fearful  convulsions,  sometimes  perhaps 
with  an  effusion  of  blood ;  and  we  know  that  the  sight 
and  smell  of  human  blood  produces  strange  effects  iu 
many  animals.  May  there  not  have  been  something  of 
this  kind  at  work  in  this  singular  event? "  ^ 

No  relief  is  really  obtained  by  thus  minimiz- 
ing miracles.  So  long  as  a  particle  of  the 
miraculous  is  left,  not  only  the  testimony  of 
eye-witnesses,  but  an  extraordinary  amount  of 
it,  will  still  be  required. 

Neander,  Olshausen,  and  other  Liberal  theo- 
logians have  betrayed  the  same  honest  per- 
plexity respecting  the  apparitions  of  the  dead 
at  the  time  of  the  Crucifixion.  Can  we  doubt 
that  those  apparitions,  as  well  as  the  earth- 
quake, the  rending  of  the  veil  of  the  Temple, 
and  the  miraculous  darkness  which  covers  the 
earth,  are  pious  embellishments  of  the  Saviour's 
death  imagined  by  a  writer  who  was  not  a 
witness  of  the  event  ?  But  if  this  is  so,  what 
becomes  of  that  writer's  testimony  to  any 
miracle?     Rationalism   cannot   be   allowed  to 

i Life  of  Christy  I.,  337,  S3S. 


't'l  if"! 


Uif  '. 


i 


''a;  •! 


!  i  iii 


274 


OJ^^  TTOiJi)  MORE 


pick  and  choose  among  the  miracles.  All  rest 
on  the  same  evidence  and  must  be  accepted  or 
rejected  together.  If  the  testimony  of  an 
evangelist  to  the  apparition  of  the  dead  in 
the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  or  to  the  miracle  of 
the  swine,  is  disallowed  in  those  cases,  the 
testimony  of  the  same  evangelist  to  other 
miracles  cannot  be  received. 

Jowett  in  his  public  writings  would  be  re- 
strained by  his  position  as  the  clerical  head  of 
a  college  as  well  as  by  his  gentle  unwillingness 
to  offend.  But  we  now  have  his  private  letters. 
In  these  it  clearly  appears  that  he  had  entirely 
given  up  belief  in  miracles  and  did  not  ex- 
pect it  ever  again  to  prevail.  He  prompts  a 
clerical  friend,  in  addressing  an  ecclesiastical 
audience,  to  disrate  miracles,  though  in  cautious 
phraseology,  classing  them  as  religious  difficul- 
ties  with  the  "immoralities  of  Scripture"  and 
with  "humanly  invented  mysteries." 

In  disparagement  of  the  historical  evidence, 
Jowett  goes  beyond  anything  said  in  these 
essays.  "How  little,"  he  says,  "we  know  of 
the  life  of  Christ  —  apparently  derived  from  a 
document  no  longer  in  existence  —  and  nothing 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


275 


All  rest 
epted  or 
|r  of  an 
dead  in 
iracle  of 
ises,  the 
to    other 

Id  be  re- 
[  head  of 
Uingness 
e  letters. 
L  entirely 

not  ex- 
rompts  a 
esiastical 

cautious 
J  difficul- 
are"  and 

evidence, 
in  these 
know  of 
d  from  a 
I  nothing 


more  known  than  was  known  at  the  end  of  the 
second  century."^  These  words,  though  dis- 
jointed, seem  clearly  to  imply  that  the  historical 
books  of  the  New  Testament  have  no  basis 
except  a  single  document  of  unknown  author- 
ship and  now  lost.  This  appears  to  be  the 
extreme  of  scepticism.  The  fourth  Gospel 
must  apparently  have  had  an  independent 
source.  There  is,  besides,  the  evidence  of 
Paul,  who  beyond  doubt  had  conversed  with 
two  of  the  apostles,  and  in  whose  pages  the 
reflection  of  Christ's  character  and  of  his 
ethical  teaching  coincides  generally  with  the 
portraiture  in  the  Gospels,  however  much  of 
dogmatic  addition  or  perversion  there  may  be. 
Paul  has,  moreover,  a  circumstantial  account  of 
the  Last  Supper.  On  his  writings  is  impressed 
distinct  and  definite  belief  in  a  personal  Christ. 
It  seems  hardly  possible  to  doubt  that  there 
was  at  the  source  of  Christendom  a  great  per- 
sonality, with  a  character  the  imitation  of 
which  has  been  the  Christian  life. 

Geocentric   is   an   ungainly  word,  to  which 

1  The  Life  and  Letters  of  Benjamin  JoMBtU^  by  Evelyn 
Abbott  and  Lewis  Campbell,  II.,  387. 


276 


ONE   WOBD  MORE 


Im^  -  ^\ 


¥  '.M 


,51 J      ' 


(i 


! 
I 

\\     -.    ;. 


"m 


critics  may  fairly  object.  Unhappily  the  Nor- 
man Conquest,  by  disorganizing  our  language 
and  depriving  it  of  its  power  of  forming 
compounds,  b«s  reduced  us,  especially  in  phi- 
losophy and  science,  to  these  barbarous  importa- 
tions from  the  Greek.  But  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  the  Gospel  history  is  adjusted  physically 
and  theologically  to  the  mistaken  idea  that  the 
earth  is  the  centre  of  the  universe.  Nor  can 
it  be  denied  that  the  appearance  of  the  star  at 
the  Nativity  involves  astronomical  misconcep- 
tion and  superstition.  Is  it  imaginable  that  the 
descent  of  the  Deity  to  earth  for  the  salvation 
of  mankind  should  have  been  accommodated 
to  the  cosmography  and  astronomy  of  an  un- 
scientific era? 

There  is  a  strong  disposition  on  the  part  of 
the  Liberal  Orthodox  school,  as  might  have 
been  expected,  to  refine  away  the  Atonement 
or  Redemption,  which  they  feel  to  be  a  moral 
stumbling-block,  and  to  represent  Christ  as 
having  merely  effected  a  "reconciliation"  of 
man  to  God.  If  the  Fall  of  Man  is  mythical, 
what  was  there  to  call  for  reconciliation? 
Why,   if   necessary,   could    not    reconciliation 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


277 


lie  Nor- 
mguage 
Eorming 
in  phi- 
mporta- 
3  denied 
lysically 
that  the 
Nor  can 
B  star  at 
sconcep- 
that  the 
salvation 
modated 
i  an  un- 

B  part  of 
rht  have 
onement 
a  moral 
vhrist  as 
,tion"  of 
mythical, 
ciliation  ? 
nciliation 


have  been  effected  otherwise  than  by  cruci- 
fixion ?  Bishop  Butler  understood  the  Chris- 
tian dispensation  well,  and  he  considers  it 
pertinent  in  connection  with  the  death  of 
Christ  elaborately  to  vindicate  the  doctrine  of 
"  vicarious  punishment."  He  quotes  the  Script- 
ures which  say  that  "we  are  sanctified  through 
the  offering  of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ  once  for 
all,"  that  "  Christ  was  once  offered  to  bear  the 
sins  of  many,"  that  "he  suffered  for  sins,  the 
just  for  the  unjust,"  that  "he  gave  his  life  a 
ransom  for  many,"  that  "  he  redeemed  us  with 
his  blood."  1  Is  it  possible  to  explain  away 
the  obvious  meaning  of  such  a  passage  as  "  He 
that  spared  not  his  own  son,  but  delivered  him 
up  for  us  all,  how  shall  he  not  with  him  freely 
give  us  all  things?"  (Rom.  viii.  32).  Bishop 
Pearson,  in  his  work  upon  the  Creed,  has  accu- 
mulated passages  to  the  same  effect.  There 
surely  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  belief  of  the 
orthodox   churches  upon  this  point.     It  per- 


1  See  also  John  xi.  49-52 :  Rom.  iii.  25,  26 ;  Rom.  v. 
8-10  ;  Rom.  viii.  3  ;  1  Cor.  xv.  3  ;  Heb.  ix.  11-15,  22, 
26,  28 ;  Heb.  x.  10,  11,  14, 19,  20 ;  1  John  i.  7 ;  1  John  ii. 
2 ;  1  Pbter  1.  19. 


-'■■'■]' 


278 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


'.  L   »  . 


t  V  ft 


II 


vades  their  articles  and  confessioiiH,  their 
eucharistic  ritual,  their  hymnal.  Renounce  it 
you  may  on  moral  grounds.  To  glide  out  of 
it  or  divest  it  of  its  awful  character  is  hopeless. 
Without  it  there  is  no  significance  in  the  typi- 
cal imagery  cf  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews ; 
there  is  in  truth  no  significance  in  the  Cruci- 
fixion. 

In  the  Resurrection  Orthodox  Liberal  writers 
still  profess  their  unshaken  faith.  But  they 
show  a  tendency  to  shift  the  basis  of  proof 
from  direct  historical  testimony  to  prevalent 
belief.  Prevalent  belief  in  such  an  age  and 
among  people  so  capable  of  illusion,  and  with 
so  little  to  correct  it,  is  hardly  a  sure  founda- 
tion. There  was  a  prevalent  belief  in  the 
speedy  second  coming  of  Christ. 

If  we  look  into  ourselves  we  shall  probably 
find  that  the  really  operative  influences  have 
been  those  of  the  Character  and  the  Words,  not 
those  of  miracle  or  dogma.  What^we  cannot 
possibly  understand,  we  canaQt  possibly  believe. 
Tliat  which  we  cannot  believe,  however  often 
repeated,  can  produce  no  effect,  on  our  conduct. 
The  first  disciples  were  drawn  to  Jesus,  not  by 


,) 


w 


ONE  WORD  MORE 


279 


miracles,  which  it  does  not  appear  that  they  had 
seen,  nor  by  dogma,  of  which  they  had  never 
heard,  but  by  the  Character  and  the  Words. 
Why  should  not  our  relations  to  the  Teacher 
be  as  theirs  ?  "  And  Jesus,  walking  by  the  sea 
of  Galilee,  saw  two  brethren,  Simon  called 
Peter,  and  Andrew  his  brother,  casting  a  net 
into  the  sea:  for  they  were  fishers.  And  he 
saith  unto  them,  Follow  me,  and  I  will  make 
you  fishers  of  men.  And  they  straightway  left 
their  nets,  and  followed  him.  And  going  on 
from  thence,  he  saw  other  two  brethren,  James 
the  son  of  Zebedee,  and  John  his  brother,  in  a 
ship  with  Zebedee  their  father,  mending  their 
nets;  and  he  called  them.  And  they  imme- 
diately left  the  ship  and  their  father,  and  fol- 
lowed him."  Why,  if  the  Character  and  the 
Words  come  home  to  our  convictions  and  our 
hearts,  should  we  not  do  the  same  ? 


ni 


On  no  subject  would  an  answer  to  the  doubts 
expressed  in  the  essays  have  been  more  welcome 
or  more  gladly  recorded  than  on  that  of  the 
immortality  of  the  soul.  But  either  no  answer 
has  been  found,  or  the  answer  is  for  the  present 


280 


ONE  WORD  MORE 


fill 


withheld.  Something  has  been  said  of  an  in- 
nate instinct  of  immortality.  There  would  be 
no  more  reason  for  rejecting  the  evidence  of  an 
innate  instinct,  if  its  existence  could  be  substan- 
tiated, than  for  rejecting  the  evidence  of  sense. 
But  to  substantiate  the  existence  of  an  innate 
instinct  is  very  difficult.  It  has  become  more 
difficult  than  ever  since  the  discovery  of  the 
origin  of  the  human  species,  which  seems  to 
repel  the  belief  of  any  peculiar  inspiration 
infused  into  the  primeval  man.  There  is  ap- 
parently no  instinct  of  immortality  in  the 
Chinese  or  Japanese.  There  was  none  in  the 
Epicurean.  There  is  none  in  the  modern  phi- 
losophers who  have  ceased,  as  some  modern 
philosophers  unquestionably  have,  to  believe 
in  immortality.  Can  we  be  sure  that  this 
instinct  is  anything  more  than  a  craving  for 
life,  combined  with  the  mental  difficulty  which 
we  feel  in  thinking  of  ourselves  as  no  longer 
existing,  and  of  the  world  of  which  we  are 
now  a  part  as  continuing  to  exist  without  us  ? 
The  indications  noted  in  the  essay  on  a  future 
life,  such  as  the  spiritual  value  of  character,  its 
possible  affinity  to  supreme  goodness,  and  the 


^*»pj=^' 


ONE  WORD  MORS 


281 


sense  of  responsibility  at  the  end  of  life,  faint 
as  they  may  be,  and  merely  tentative  as  must 
be  any  speculation  founded  on  them,  are  indica- 
tions not  of  supposed  instinct  but  of  reason,  and 
are  capable  at  least  of  being  laid  in  the  scale  of 
rational  investigation. 

The  genesis  of  our  personal  consciousness  is 
a  mystery  which  science  perhaps  may  never 
solve.  But  consciousness  can  hardly  be  a 
pledge  of  immortality,  since  it  is  manifestly 
shared  by  brutes  and  is  capable  of  physical 
suspension  by  sleep,  by  concussion  of  the  brain, 
and  by  anaesthetics. 

To  death  we  resign  ourselves,  in  spite  of  our 
love  of  life,  because  death,  we  see,  is  necessary 
to  the  renewal  and  progress  of  the  species, 
though  it  is  idle  to  pretend  that  it  is  not  sad 
to  pass  away  from  all  our  interests,  all  our 
enjoyments,  all  we  love. 

'<  In  proportion  as  the  years  both  lessen  and  shorten, 
I  set  more  count  upon  their  periods,  and  would  fain  lay 
my  ineffectual  finger  upon  the  spoke  of  the  great  wheel. 
I  am  not  content  to  pass  away  *  like  a  weaver's  shuttle.' 
Those  metaphors  solace  me  not,  nor  sweeten  the  unpala- 
table draught  of  mortality.  I  care  not  to  be  carried 
with  the  tide,  that  smoothly  bears  human  life  to  eternity ; 


^ 

't 

)  '•* 

i 

'1- 

.1 

1./ 

1 

"1. 

232 


ojv:b  tto/jz)  ifOi?^ 


and  reluct  at  the  inevitable  course  of  destiny.  I  am  in 
love  with  this  green  earth ;  the  face  of  town  and  country ; 
the  unspeakable  rural  solitudes,  and  the  sweet  security  of 
streets.  I  would  set  up  my  tabernacle  here.  I  am  con- 
tent to  stand  still  at  the  age  to  which  I  am  arrived ;  I, 
and  my  friends ;  to  be  no  younger,  no  richer,  no  hand- 
somer. I  do  not  want  to  be  weaned  by  age;  or  drop, 
like  mellow  fruit,  as  they  say,  into  the  grave."  ^ 


ii  '  I 


This  is  the  general  voice  of  nature,  though 
varied  sometimes  by  the  note  of  weariness  or 
despair.  Yet  Charles  Lamb  fails  tc  mark  the 
dearest  tie  to  life,  -which  is  that  of  affection. 

To  death,  however,  we  resign  ourselves.  We 
do  not  resign  ourselves  to  annihilation.  Nor, 
if  annihilation  is  the  end,  can  we  understand 
how  justice  and  benevolence,  such  justice  and 
benevolence,  at  all  events,  es  are  intelligible  to 
us,  can  b?  the  attributes  of  the  supreme  power. 
Myriads  of  human  beings,  through  no  fault  of 
their  own,  have  lived  in  n;iis.^iy,  perhaps  in 
cruel  slavery,  and  died  in  pain,  not  a  few  in 
agony.  Myriads  have  been  born  to  primeval 
savagery,  without  hope  of  n«oral  civilization. 
The  lot  of    myriads  has  been  cast    in    such 


1  C.  Lamb,  Essays:  "New  Year's  Eve." 


ONE  WORD  MORE 


283 


.  I  am  in 
ri  country ; 
security  of 
I  am  con- 
irrived;  I, 
,  no  hand- 
;  or  drop, 


(,  though 
riness  or 
nark  the 
ction. 
p-es.  We 
m.  Nor, 
iderstand 
itice  and 
ligible  to 
le  power. 
)  fault  of 

rhaps  in 
a  few  in 

primeval 

ilization. 

in    such 


periods  as  that  of  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire or  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  If  for  these 
there  is  no  compensation,  how  can  we  believe 
in  a  just  and  benevolent  administration  of  the 
universe?  Dogmatic  and  historical  Christianity 
is  far  from  relieving  us  of  the  difficulty,  since  it 
places  all  the  generations  before  Christ,  and  the 
whole  heathen  world  down  to  this  day,  out  of 
the  pale  at  least  of  covenanted  salvation. 

We  are  ever  confronted  also  by  the  mystery 
of  suffering  among  helpless  and  guiltless  brutes. 
Dr.  Nansen's  dogs  do  their  cruel  duty  with 
touching  faithfulness,  and  are  killed  as  their 
reward.  Is  it  not  conceivable  that  to  a  power 
placed  infinitely  above  them  and  their  master 
they  as  well  as  he  may  be  objects  of  interest ' 
Animals  suffer,  not  only  in  their  bodies,  but  in 
their  humble  affections,  by  the  loss  of  their 
mates  and  of  their  young.  Beasts  of  prey 
must  feed  on  other  beasts  ;  this  is  in  the  fixed 
order  of  things. 

Failing  proof  of  personal  life  beyond  the 
grave,  the  least  repulsive  idea  of  death  seems 
to  be  re-union  with  the  life  of  the  universe  ; 
a  re-union  which  our  revolting  system  of  coffin 


W'    ill 


I    I 


■  'I' 


t 

I.F 


'r 


pi 

^1 

H^r 

: 

wl 

mkm 

f'wl^ 

1  1 


284 


ONE  WORD  MORE 


burial  studies  to  defer  by  protracting  the  pro- 
cess of  decay.  But  it  is  our  pe^donal  existence 
with  its  mental  life  and  affections  the  continu- 
ance of  which  we  crave  and  which  we  cannot 
without  a  pang  resign.  '  Rest  in  the  grave '  is 
a  soothing  phrase,  but  annihilation,  once  more, 
is  not  rest. 

Excellence  in  us  is  the  fruit  of  effort.  If  we 
try  to  picture  to  ourselves  an  angel,  perfectly 
virtuous  without  effort,  insipidity  is  the  result. 
Pain  and  suffering,  so  long  as  they  can  be  said 
to  stimulate  moral  effort,  are  capable  of  ex- 
planation. But  there  are  cases  innumerable 
in  which  they  can  have  no  such  tendency. 
There  are  cases  innumerable  in  which  moral 
effort  and  its  fruits  are  wrecked  by  that  which, 
so  far  as  we  can  see,  is  the  blind  havoc  of 
natuj'e. 

Of  the  theistic  hypothesis  the  difficulty,  it 
must  be  owned,  is  not  lass  in  conception  than 
in  demonstration.  What  idea  can  we  form  of 
God  ?  Is  he  external  to  the  universe,  or  does 
he  pervade  it  ?  The  difficulty  of  either  con- 
ception seems  insuperable.     When  we  try  to 


ONE  WORD  MORE 


285 


think  of  God  as  a  person,  we  are  unable  to 
clear  our  minds  of  anthropomorphism,  which 
nevertheless  reason  discards.  Perhaps  in  this 
respect  our  imaginations  are  still  somewhat 
enslaved  by  the  notions  of  the  Jews,  who 
fancied  that  God  walked  in  a  garden,  made 
garments  for  our  first  parents,  and  broke  bread 
under  the  tent  of  Abraham.  On  English 
readers  these  notions  have  been  impressed, 
while  they  have  been  dignified,  by  Milton.  In 
the  Roman  Stoics  we  perceive  something  like 
consciousness  of  a  divine  presence  and  govern- 
ment, in  which  virtue  finds  its  support  and 
assurance  without  the  idea  of  a  personal  Deity. 
But  Ita  striving  to  conceive  Deity  without 
anthropomorphism,  our  intellect  faints,  as  it 
faints  in  the  attempt  to  conceive  infinity  and 
eternity,  as  it  faints  in  brooding  over  the  im- 
penetrable mystery  of  existence. 

Is  there  anything  to  suggest  a  key  to  the 
nature  and  operations  of  the  power  which  en- 
ters the  universe  other  than  the  consciousness 
of  upward  effort  in  ourselves?  In  what  we 
see  there  appears  to  bo  a  general  "  travailing  " 
and  a  struggling  towards  perfection,  as  though 


\- 


Wii;!! : 


286 


ONE  WORD  MORE 


^^H 

^tm 

^  { 

Hi 

i 

■ 

;l 

ii 

'T^H                                         t 

i 

m4' 

a?  > 

' 

'  11 

'"i  '.   ■ 
'I)    « 


m 


.m 

ffe 


y  ■" 


I . 


■  i 


something  like  effort  and  not  fiat  were  the  law. 
From  an  atomic  nebula  without  form  and  void 
our  earth  has  come  to  be  what  it  is.  Man  has 
risen  from  the  level  of  the  brute  and  is  rising 
still.  The  effort  is  in  him,  yet  the  force  and 
direction  must  have  been  supplied. 

Mind,  morality,  and  sentiment,  however 
generated,  exist.  Supposing  them  to  have 
been  evolved  from  matter,  they  are  something 
different  from  it ;  and  we  can  hardly  imagine 
that  in  the  whole  universe  they  are  ours  alone. 

The  thing  of  which  we  appear  to  be  certain 
is  our  own  insignificance,  mites  as  we  are  on 
a  globe  which  itself  is  immeasurably  less  than 
a  speck  in  infinity.  The  thought  may  even  pre- 
sent itself  that  the  comic  element  in  us,  with 
the  significance  of  which  philosophers  i-  general 
have  failed  to  deal,  though  Swift  in  his  Day 
of  Judgment  has  not  failed,  may  point  to  truth, 
and  that  what  seems  to  us  of  overwhelming 
importance  may,  in  reality,  be  less  serious  than 
it  seems.  The  universe  is  inconceivable  and 
unimaginable.  Will  man's  relation  to  it  ever 
be  known? 


ONE   WORD  MORE 


287 


the  law. 
nd  void 
ilan  has 
s  rising 
rce  and 

lowever 
;o  have 
nething 
imagine 
s  alone, 
certain 

are  on 
iss  than 
ren  pre- 
is,  with 
general 
is  Day 

truth, 
elming 
as  than 
le  and 
it  ever 


Pending  the  reconstruction  of  theism  at  all 
events,  a  philosophy  to  guide  and  regulate 
human  conduct,  independently  of  the  theistic 
hypothesis,  is  the  need  of  the  hour. 

Morality,  to  be  effective,  must  have  a  motive 
power.  A  philosophical  or  mathematical  defini- 
tion, such  as  "the  fitness  of  things,"  is  not  a 
motive  power,  at  all  events  for  any  but  the 
philosophers  or  mathematicians.  Moral  taste 
is  a  motive  power  for  none  but  cultivated  men 
like  Shaftesbury,  who  in  truth  seems  to  have 
been  aware  that  he  wrote  not  for  the  vulgar 
herd.  The  conscience,  which  is  Butler's  motive 
power,  is  in  his  system  manifestly  the  oracle  of 
God,  so  that  its  authority  must  depend  on  the 
proofs  of  theism.  The  will  of  God,  with  reward 
or  punishment  annexed,  is  plainly  stated  to  be 
the  motive  power  of  the  system  of  Paley.  Any 
transcendental  sanction  of  duty,  such  as  Kant's 
categorical  imperative,  implies  an  extra-human 
authority,  which,  in  fact,  is  the  authority  of  God. 
Even  Comtism,  although  anti-theistic,  must  rest 
on  a  transcendental  authority  of  some  kind,  con- 
straining us  to  the  service  of  humanity,  which  a 
man  of  thoroughly  selfish  nature  might  other- 


Ii_ 

! 

^:*i^ 


!f'9 


ill  r :! 


:;t; 


Wl  i'  ■ 


.1^ 


288 


ONE  WORD  MORE 


wise  decline.  Necessarianism  practically  ac- 
cepted would  extinguish  effort ;  so  apparently 
would  pantheism ;  neither  of  them,  at  all 
events,  can  supply  a  motive  power.  Hobbes 
would  indeed  supply  a  motive  power,  but  it 
would  be  that  of  mutual  fear,  an  idea  sug- 
gested by  the  disturbances  of  the  writer's  time. 
Utilitarianism  has  a  motive  power,  and  we  have 
only  to  extend  it  to  the  whole  man,  domestic 
and  social  as  well  as  individual,  moral  and 
spiritual  as  well  as  material,  in  order  to  make  it 
what  we  require. 

Apart  from  theism,  a  practical  system  of 
morality,  or  perhaps  we  should  rather  say  of 
humanity,  will  appeal  to  the  natural  needs  and 
desires  of  man,  for  the  supply  and  satisfaction 
of  which  it  will  point  out  the  right  way,  and 
frame  the  code  of  necessary  conditions.  It 
will  give  rules  for  the  attainment  of  health 
and  full  development,  bodily,  intellectual,  and 
aesthetic  ;  for  the  practice  of  industry  by  which 
a  man  has  to  make  his  bread ;  for  marriage  and 
the  family  life  in  which  he  gratifies  his  domestic 
affections ;  for  the  social  intercourse  through 
which,  complying  with  social  rules,   he  may 


m. 


ONE  WORD  MORE 


289 


enjoy  the  good-will  and  confidence  of  his  fel- 
lows; for  the  political  union  which  is  neces- 
sary to  his  safety  and  his  general  well-being. 
Throughout  it  will  act  on  him  with  a  sufficient 
motive  power.  It  will  teach  him  the  necessity 
of  respecting  for  his  own  sake  the  interest  and 
feelings  of  his  fellows ;  and  against  anti-social 
passion  or  self-assertion  will  appeal  to  the  force 
of  social  opinion,  in  the  last  resort  to  that 
of  penal  law.  Widely  scattered,  even  among 
works  of  fiction  of  the  better  class,  there  is 
much  material  of  which  a  manual  of  human  life 
may  avail  itself.  The  sciences  which  deal  with 
humanity  in  all  its  phases  and  relations  are 
making  way  with  ever  accumulating  power. 

In  a  practical  system  of  morality  such  as 
his,  the  ethical  teachings  of  Jesus,  as  ratified 
by  experience,  personal  and  that  of  Chris- 
tendom at  large,  would  be  preserved,  though 
without  their  theistic  basis.  But  there  would 
be  no  more  rigorous  insistence  on  an  un- 
attainable ideal,  the  presentation  of  which 
fails  of  practical  impression  with  ordinary 
men.  The  moralist,  instead  of  telling  us,  as 
the  preacher  has  been  wont  to  do,  that  we 


1' 


if 


lh\ 


P,  ■  .'.;> 


290 


ONE  WORD  MORE 


must  be  seraphic  or  be  lost,  would  help  each 
of  us  to  do  the  best  he  could.  We  should 
hear  no  more  of  the  corruption  of  human 
nature ;  we  should  hear  only  of  its  natural 
infirmities,  and  of  its  need  of  guidance,  regu- 
lation, and  support.  Real  incentives  to  right 
action  would  not  be  excluded  or  disrated  be- 
cause they  are  not  evangelical  and  belong  not 
to  spiritual  altitudes  which  common  natures 
do  not  attain.  All  natural  desires  of  wealth 
or  other  worldly  goods,  of  affection,  reputa- 
tion, and  the  good-will  of  our  fellows,  would 
be  recognized  as  entitled  to  fulfilment  in  their 
several  degrees.  We  should  cease  to  think, 
or  affect  to  think,  of  this  world  as  evil,  of 
this  life  as  worthless,  or  of  the  body  as  the 
prison-house  of  the  soul.  In  truth,  the  pulpit 
is  already  beginning  to  take  this  turn,  and 
to  treat  with  respect  the  body  and  our  inter- 
est in  this  life.  It  has  been  holding  lan- 
guage which  would  not  be  easily  reconciled 
with  the  hatred  of  this  present  world,  and 
the  longing  to  be  released  from  it,  breathed 
in  the  Gospels  and  by  St.  Paul.  Lambeth 
now  takes  up  the  labour  question.     Spiritual 


y ,.. 


ONE  WORD  MORE 


291 


thaumaturgy  of  all  kinds  would  of  course 
depart,  as  would  all  supposed  means  of  attain- 
ing perfection  or  improvement  in  character 
otherwise  than  by  moral  effort  with  rational 
assistance.  There  would  be  no  more  sacra- > 
mental  regeneration,  no  more  death-bed  absolu- 
tion, no  more  trust  in  supernatural  conversion. 
Such  terms  as  duty  and  conscience  would 
change  their  transcendental  for  a  practical 
meaning,  the  first  becoming  the  rule  of  life,  the 
second  the  internal  record  of  our  observance 
of  that  rule.  This  would  be  a  descent  from 
the  angelic  height,  but  we  should  at  least  be 
on  firm  ground. 

To  all  questions  whether  this  life,  so  brief 
and  chequered,  is  worth  living,  the  answer  is 
that  it  must  be  lived.  This  even  Schopenhauer 
admits,  though  the  logical  conclusion  from  his 
premisses  would  be  universal  suicide.  Opti- 
mism and  pessimism  are  equally  futile.  Our 
world  is  what  it  is.  Whether  it  could  have 
bcbii  other  than  it  is  we  cannot  tell. 

Acceptance  of  a  system  the  object  of  which 
is  to  make  the  best  of  our  mortal  life,  by  no 
means  implies  the  renunciation  of  higher  hopes 


292 


ONE  WORD  MORE 


if!*. 


1 1 


ii 


or  of  effort  to  learn  more  than  we  now  know 
of  man's  estate,  and  obtain  better  proofs  than 
we  now  have  of  the  existence  of  a  supreme 
being  and  of  his  care  for  man.  Hume,  the 
great  demolisher  of  theism  and  beliefs  that 
depend  on  it,  was  a  man  of  first-rate  intellect 
and  a  most  philosophic  temper.  But  he  was 
not  an  earnest  seeker  after  positive  truth,  at 
least  in  the  theological  line.  He  enjoyed  the 
position  of  a  sceptic,  looking  at  it  as  the  privi- 
lege of  cultivated  intellect,  and  well  content 
that  superstition  should  be  the  lot  of  the  vulgar. 
To  him,  as  to  his  intellectual  kinsman  Gibbon, 
it  seemed  that  all  religions  were  to  the  people 
equally  true,  to  the  philosopher  equally  false, 
to  the  statesman  equally  useful.  He  was  cyn- 
ical enough  to  advise  a  young  freethinker  to 
take  Anglican  orders.  The  drama  of  humanity 
would  be  a  farce  if  this  were  the  last  word. 

It  may  be  that  religious  thought  will  com- 
plete the  course  which  it  has  been  running 
through  the  ages,  from  primeval  nature-wor- 
ship to  our  present  idea  of  deity,  and  which  it 
is  the  fashion  to  call  evolution.  Our  present 
idea  and  the  name  which  expresses  it  may  in 


I,  ,\       It 


ONE  WORD  MORE 


293 


their  turn  depart.  Prayer,  as  a  petition,  and 
worship,  so  far  as  it  is  anthropomorphic,  may 
cease.  Yet  man  will  not  rest  content  with 
blank  ignorance  of  the  origin,  law,  and  end  of 
his  being ;  nor  will  his  religious  emotions  and 
aspirations  die.  Possibly  he  may  attain  a  higher 
point  of  view  and  see  what  now  he  cannot  see. 
Darwin  wab  not  the  first  discoverer,  nor  is  he 
likely  to  be  the  last.  Man  has  risen  from  the 
ape,  or  something  lower  than  the  ape,  to  what 
he  is.  If,  as  the  physiologists  say,  his  physical 
frame  is  incapable  of  further  development,  the 
limit  of  his  spiritual  development  may  not  be 
so  fixed.  Evolution  of  Revelation  is  a  contra- 
diction in  terms  and  an  absurdity.  But  pro- 
gressive effort  may  be  the  law  of  religious,  as 
well  as  of  scientific,  thought.  It  is  at  all  events 
not  yet  to  be  assumed  that,  as  M.  Guyau  thinks, 
the  future  will  be  without  religion  or  without 
association  for  spiritual  purposes. 

Let  us  not  be  slaves  to  Evolution.  It  is 
no  doubt  an  immense  discovery,  and  has  pro- 
foundly changed  our  conception  not  only  of 
the  origin  but  of  the  estate  of  man.    But  let 


294 


ONE  WORD  MORE 


US  not  be  slaves  to  it.  It  is  a  physical  law,  or 
combination  of  laws.  Its  operation  is  no  longer 
traceable,  at  least  has  not  yet  been  traced,  be- 
yond the  point  at  which  conscious  effort  begins. 
Progress  tliere  is,  and  in  science  generally  sus- 
tained or  connected  progress,  one  discovery 
leading  on  to  another ;  but  progress  it  appears 
to  be,  not  evolution.  In  the  aesthetic  region  we 
may  almost  say  that  the  wind  bloweth  where  it 
listeth.  The  great  poets,  artists,  and  musicians 
have  come  largely  in  groups  without  any  appar- 
ent regularity  of  succession,  though  of  course 
not  without  relation  to  the  temporary  environ- 
ment. Morality  in  its  rudimentary  form  is  un- 
doubtedly seen  in  brutes,  and  in  men  as  in 
brutes  it  is  the  balance  of  desire  with  submis- 
sion to  the  necessary  limitations.  Nevertheless 
human  morality  is  a  very  different  thing  from 
that  of  brutes,  and,  unlike  that  of  the  brutes,  is 
always  being  advanced  by  conscious  and  upward 
effort.  Touched  by  religion  or  spiritual  aspira- 
tion, it  has  formed  memorable  types  of  char- 
acter ;  the  Socratic,  the  Stoic,  the  Jewish,  the 
Buddhist,  the  Mahometan,  and,  far  above  all. 


ONi:  WORD  MORE 


295 


the  Christian ;  limited,  all  of  them,  even  Chris- 
tianity, and  one-sided,  as  selections  tending  to 
exaggeration  of  some  special  virtue  or  group  of 
virtues,  yet  suggestive  of  an  aim  beyond  our 
present  state  and  the  uses  of  our  existence  here. 

Of  this  our  nature  assures  us,  if  it  can  assure   | 
us  of  anything,  that  we  are  faithful  servants  of    \ 
God,  if  there  is  a  god,  and  must  be  safe,  so  long 
as  we  steadfastly  adhere  to  the  truth.  ' 


p- 

i 

If?' 

1 

! 

r 

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